Hickory and this year's Milken Statistics - (2008-2009)

The Milken Institute Statistics of the Best Performing Cities, for the past year, came out last week and I have looked over them. The numbers show that the Hickory metro improved very slightly. We are now ranked #185 out of the top 200 U.S. metros compared to #191 last year. Job growth and wage growth trends are still lousy, but High-Tech GDP output shot through the roof and shows to be an emerging trend.

Here are the rankings and trends since 2003:

Below is a presentation of Hickory's 2009 Milken rankings versus the rest of North Carolina:
What one sees is that the rest of North Carolina's Metro areas are coming back to the pack a little, but not severely. I would speculate that the one-year job growth trends are holding up in Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville, because of government jobs; everywhere else has trended down. Only Greensboro sees anything near the abysmal wage growth that we have here in the Hickory metro.

I would also venture to guess that Wilmington and Asheville are coming back to the pack, in the overall statistics, because the recession is having a negative impact on tourism, which is a major component of those area's economy.

The national trends show that 8 of the top 20 metros in the nation are in Texas. International trade with Mexico has had a major impact on the Texas economy, due to strategic location and the weakening dollar. On the negative side, out of the bottom 20 metro areas, 14 are in the Michigan-Indiana-Ohio corridor. That is a continuing trend that I have previously addressed, because Hickory is amongst these city's that are at the bottom of the statistics.

To get a good grasp on these statistics, you can look at the article Hickory - Time to put the Puzzle together. We can pretty much see that we are in the same position as we were last year, but we do see some promise in the infusion of monies related to the High-Tech sector. That is where the future lies and it looks like we are sowing the seeds towards that kind of future. That is promising.

I believe the key is the follow through. We have to make sure that these seeds are allowed to grow and we have to keep fertilizing them. I think energy and devotion towards these High-Tech goals are even more important than money. We all know what needs to be done, we just have to go do it.