Can you believe it's December already? The chill in the air sure makes it feel like winter but it still surprises me how quickly the year went by. I - like many of you - am already looking ahead to 2011; making predictions and plans for the coming year.
Speaking of predictions, the 47th Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon was held this week at the Phoenix Convention Center. The luncheon is co-sponsored by Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business and JPMorgan Chase. Top economic experts discussed their predictions to the over 1,000 attendees at the luncheon. They spoke about both the national and local Phoenix economies. And . . . drumroll . . . they had good news. Great news, in fact. Both economies are on the upward trend with "significant improvements" to be seen in 2011.
Lee McPheters, director of the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center at the W. P. Carey School of Business, was quoted in the event's official press release as saying that "every Arizona indicator should show improvement next year. The state's economy ‘bumped along the bottom' for most of 2010, but the Arizona outlook for 2011 is brighter than we've seen since the national recession began in December 2007."
McPheters also discussed at the luncheon the biggest four-letter word to the economic recovery: J-O-B-S. He said that Arizona recently (in August 2010) began to experience year-over-year job increases and is predicted to add 48,000 jobs in 2011. He went on to say that Arizona and Texas would enjoy the largest employment growth next year among the Western states. That is great news as jobs are the way to a stable and thriving economy.
Joel L. Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors and recipient of the 2008 Lawrence R. Klein Award for economic-forecasting accuracy and Bloomberg Business News' 2008 forecaster of the year, spoke about the national economy. He said that the main problem has been expectations (or wishful thinking) that the economic recovery would be like the tortoise and the hare race but with the hare winning. Sadly, we must be patient as it is the tortoise who will the race.
He explained that the economy has been growing for five consecutive quarters and that the private sector has added more than 1.1 million new positions to the workforce. Sometimes it doesn't feel like we have experienced that kind of growth nationally but, indeed, we are growing.
Read more about "Experts agree: Phoenix economy looks rosy in 2011," at My Phoenixmls.com
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