No Region Has Escaped the Downturn

The economic malaise is fairly well distributed across all regions of the U.S. The economic forecasting firm Economy.com reports that "the dominant factor underlying the regional pattern of this recession, and which differentiates this cycle from previous recessions over the past three decades, is that all four regions are behaving similarly." No region is performing well at the moment. Twenty-four states experienced declines in employment during the third quarter of this year. Nearly all of this was logged prior to the events of September 11, so the slowdown was already well underway. Some of the areas that had been experiencing stronger-than-average growth (Florida, the Mountain West, New England and the mid-Atlantic) may well be among the hardest hit by the ripple effects from September. For example, while employment was still growing in Florida in September, the recent cutbacks in travel will almost certainly reverse this trend in the coming months.