The affordability crisis and congestion are just two of the signs of the dominance of cities in the economic recovery, according to an article in the Washington Post. In fact, outside of cities, it doesn't look much like a recovery at all.
In Northern California, according to Jim Tankersley, "it’s easy to forget there was ever a Great Recession, or why so many Americans believe that recession still isn’t over."
That's because "[the San Francisco-San Jose] metro area that the 101 freeway bisects added 30,000 new jobs in the past year, a 3.5 percent increase from September 2013....All those jobs, and the salaries and stock options that come with so many of them, are powering California to a respectable recovery and a balanced budget. The state as a whole has a falling unemployment rate and 100,000 more jobs today than it did at its pre-recession peak in 2008. But if the San Jose and San Francisco areas didn’t exist, the state would still be 80,000 jobs down from its ’08 peak."
But California is only one example of a trend that is playing out around the county. "As of the third quarter of this year, according to a Brookings analysis of Moody’s Analytics data, America’s 100 largest metro areas were collectively 1.3 million jobs over their pre-recession peak. All the other parts of the country, combined, were still 300,000 jobs below peak."
FULL STORY: Big cities are dominating the recovery, leaving the rest of America behind
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UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
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