News

The U.S. Conference of Mayors and the The Council for the New American City recently released its report, U.S. Metro Economies: 2012 Employment Forecast and the Impact of Exports, prepared by IHS Global Insight. While the report is quick to point out that the recovery from the Great Recession will be slow and uneven, the outlook for the Pacific region, and the Seattle metro area in particular, looks promising.

“The Pacific region continues to be an attractive hot spot for skilled labor such as scientists, engineers, and software programmers, which drives employment growth in the professional and business services sector that supports them. … [I]n the Seattle metro, the professional and business services will round out 2011 by adding 16,000 on the year–an impressive 7.2% rate of growth from the third largest sector in the area. This expansion will continue in 2012 with 7,000 new jobs and 3.0% growth. Seattle will also boast significant growth from transportation and trade in which 7,400 new jobs in 2012 (2.4%) will be added on top of the 5,800 in 2011 (1.9%).”

Read the full report here.