Charting Columbia’s Economic Downturn

Manufacturing employment in Boone County is down about 14 percent since 2004, housing sales are back to mid-199s levels, foreclosures have spiked and unemployment is at the highest level in decades. That's the bad news.

The population in 2007 grew more than twice the average rate and the overall number of jobs increased by 1,200. Health care employment rose 14 percent. There were increases in the number of licensed businesses, retail sales and enrollment at the University of Missouri. That's the good news.

What are business people to make of the latest statistics? Basically, the local economy is in transition, and there are positive signs on the horizon.

Jeff MacLellan, chairman of The Landrum Co., First National Bank's holding company, has been charting the local economy for two decades and presented his latest annual assessment during The Columbia Business Times inaugural Power Lunch.
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