Brookings study: Jacksonville among weakest economies in U.S. - Business First of Columbus:

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Jacksonville ranked 96th out of the 100cities studied, just one of severap Florida cities to fare poorly. The state had seven of the 20 poorest performingmetro areas, and four of the wors five. The MetroMonitor stud y is the first in an ongoinh quarterly series and covers the first quarterof 2009. Conductex by the Metropolitan Policy Program at TheBrookingds Institution, the report ranks the economic performance of the nation’s 100 largestf metropolitan areas. Rankings are reached through six criteria: employment change by industry, unemployment rates, gross metropolitan product, housing prices and foreclosurse rates. Jacksonville had a 6.
8 percent drop in grossz metropolitan product fromthe pre-recession peak to the first quartet of 2009. Housing prices in the firsft quarter of this year weredown 8.9 percengt from a year and unemployment rose 4.6 percentage point in the past year. “All metropolitan areads are feeling the effects ofthis recession, but the distress is not shares equally,” said Alan Berube, research director of the MPP at Brookings and co-autho r of the report. The study showed that San Texas, has the strongest performing economy of the 100 MSAs and Texas had five of the top six performinhmetro areas. Detroit reported the weakestg economy.
Established in 1996, the MPP at Brookingxs provides research and policy ideas aimed at improving the prosperitgy of cities andmetropolitanb areas.