Bureau of Business Research
Date of this Version
2015
Document Type
Article
Citation
Prepared By The UNL Bureau Of Business Research, Volume 7 No 1, 2ND QUARTER 2015
Abstract
The Quarterly Business Indicators for the 2nd quarter of 2015 show a growing Lincoln economy. The rate of growth, however, lagged rapid national growth over the last year.
The Lincoln MSA unemployment rate is below year-ago levels (Figure 1) and is less than half of the U.S. rate (Figure 2). Non-farm employment, which is measured via a survey of business, grew by 1.5% in Lincoln between the 2nd quarter of 2014 and 2015 (Figure 4). This was solid growth but was below the U.S. growth rate. Further, employment as measured by the household survey was flat (Table 1).
Among individual industries, manufacturing, other financial services (primarily banking), and professional, scientific and technical services grew rapidly in the Lincoln MSA over the last year (Table 1). Construction and insurance employment grew slowly and there was a decline in state government employment.
Taxable sales rose solidly in the Lincoln MSA between the 2nd quarter of 2014 and 2015, matching or exceeding national growth (Figures 9 and 10 and Table 1). Passenger enplanements were another bright spot, up 17.7%. Residential building permits also rose very rapidly in Lincoln (Figure 6), although at a slower pace than nationwide.
One area of concern for the Lincoln economy is weekly hours (Figures 7 and 8). There was a 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0% 3.5% 4.0% 2014 2015 5.1% 5.3% 5.5% 2.2% 2.2% 2.6% 0.0% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% Apr 15 May 15 Jun 15 United States Lincoln MSA VOLUME 7 NO 1 PREPARED BY THE UNL BUREAU OF BUSINESS RESEARCH 2ND QUARTER 2015 2nd Quarter 2015 page 2 LPED Quarterly Business Indicators significant decline between the 2nd quarter of 2014 and 2015.
Comments
Copyright 2015 University of Nebraska-Lincoln