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Economist says Billings, Mont., won't see worst of
the recession
(Billings Gazette
(MT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 17--A Montana
economist said this morning that low unemployment and
other positive economic signs will help Billings weather
the national recession.
"Right now, Billings is
almost one of the best places to be in the United
States," Larry Swanson said during the Celebrate
Billings Community Leadership breakfast at Montana Sate
University-Billings. In response, 300 people attending
the breakfast broke into enthusiastic applause.
Swanson, director of the O'Connor Center for the
Rocky Mountain West at the University of Montana, said
Montana has avoided the worst of the economic crisis.
Foreclosures brought on by the subprime mortgage
meltdown are almost nonexistent in Montana. So far, job
losses have been less severe here than in other states,
he said.
Economists agree the nation's economy
slipped into recession one year ago, and the slowdown
could last into 2010. Swanson didn't dispute that
Montana is beginning to feel the effects of the
slowdown. The state's unemployment rate climbed above 4
percent in the fourth quarter of this year, but it
remains lower than it was at the beginning of the
decade. By comparison, some national economists are
projecting that the nation's unemployment rate could
climb to as high as 10 percent before the recession
wanes, he said.
"We're going to be a magnitude below what we'll see
nationally," Swanson said, referring to the unemployment
rate.
Swanson warned that a torrent of negative
economic news leads people to project national trends
onto the local level. The best way to handle that is to
turn off your TV, he advised.
To see more of the
Billings Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go
to http://www.billingsgazette.com/.
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