EAST NORTH CENTRAL

2005 SALES FORECAST +8.2% EAST NORTH CENTRAL

Pockets of economic health exist in some of this region's smaller metropolitan areas. But as a whole, the East North Central region hasn't fully recovered from the recession. On the bright side, two of the Federal Reserve Banks that cover this region reported short-term gains in manufacturing output in 2004. But because of the loss of tens of thousands of industrial jobs over the past few years, it's unlikely this segment of the Rustbelt economy will see big-time improvement for quite some time, if ever. The report on office construction is mixed, too. In the third-quarter, Grubb & Ellis pegged Detroit's downtown office vacancy rate at 29.3 percent, while vacancy rates in Chicago and Milwaukee were 16.4 percent and 14.6 percent, respectively. Chicago does have some large office projects underway, but vacancy rates in Chicago's older downtown office buildings and the suburbs have stymied real growth in the city.

ELECTRICAL WHOLESALERS' SALES
(in millions of dollars)EW Estimates Final Final Final Final Forecast Forecast 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 East North Central 12,720.1 12,080.6 11,762.5 12,021.3 13,449.2 14,549.8 Illinois 4,940.6 4,692.2 4,568.7 4,669.2 5,223.8 5,651.3 Indiana 1,058.0 1,004.8 978.4 999.9 1,118.7 1,210.2 Michigan 2,385.3 2,265.4 2,205.7 2,254.3 2,522.0 2,728.4 Ohio 2,766.5 2,627.5 2,558.3 2,614.6 2,925.1 3,164.5 Wisconsin 1,569.6 1,490.7 1,451.5 1,483.4 1,659.6 1,795.4 EMPLOYMENT STATISTICSActualin thousands EC M C G East North Central 121,927 3,343.4 11,826.9 2,925.1 Illinois 35,107 707.1 3,321.8 818.6 Bloomington-Normal MSA 348 7.1 51.6 12.8 Champaign-Urbana-Rantoul MSA 355 10.1 45.7 32.7 Chicago PMSA 27,783 465.1 2,427.6 503.4 Davenport-Rock Island-Moline MSA 1,174 24.2 101.5 25.0 Decatur MSA 447 10.4 28.1 5.8 Kankakee PMSA 106 5.2 23.6 7.2 Peoria MSA 714 26.3 97.8 19.7 Rockford MSA 711 37.5 88.6 18.5 Springfield MSA 1,209 3.5 65.0 29.8 Indiana 16,833 572.8 1,488.7 390.3 Bloomington MSA 282 7.9 33.1 18.1 Elkhart-Goshen MSA 436 58.2 41.4 7.0 Evansville MSA 864 28.1 88.1 15.7 Fort Wayne MSA 1,171 58.0 138.5 23.8 Gary-Hammond PMSA 2,518 37.2 144.3 34.0 Indianapolis MSA 6,121 106.1 505.7 110.1 Kokomo MSA NA 17.1 21.6 7.2 Lafayette MSA 420 19.6 42.5 21.7 Muncie MSA 345 6.9 30.5 9.6 South Bend-Mishawaka MSA 1,188 18.3 81.2 14.0 Terre Haute MSA NA 11.1 38.2 10.7 Michigan 27,451 711.1 2,462.0 587.8 Ann Arbor PMSA 1,362 40.1 145.3 70.9 Benton Harbor MSA 241 17.0 36.5 7.2 Detroit PMSA 11,083 310.1 1,220.0 203.7 Flint PMSA 656 22.3 92.2 19.8 Grand Rapids MSA 3,512 127.8 299.1 49.7 Jackson MSA 890 10.2 32.3 10.5 Kalamazoo MSA 1,269 38.8 111.1 30.1 Lansing-East Lansing MSA 1,611 20.9 116.4 64.4 Saginaw-Bay City-Midland MSA 641 21.8 103.5 21.0 Ohio 25,948 827.4 3,014.7 753.6 Akron PMSA 1,400 49.7 180.4 44.2 Canton MSA 905 31.6 100.7 19.8 Cincinnati PMSA 4,001 104.7 531.2 100.8 Cleveland PMSA 5,319 160.2 656.4 139.1 Columbus MSA 5,605 72.4 524.2 144.4 Dayton-Springfield MSA 1,876 67.3 253.9 69.0 Hamilton-Middletown PMSA 933 19.4 66.0 19.2 Lima MSA 243 18.2 40.5 9.3 Mansfield MSA 189 19.2 37.0 10.7 Steubenville-Weirton MSA 90 9.5 25.9 6.0 Toledo MSA 1,607 49.0 163.9 43.1 Youngstown-Warren MSA 1,041 40.4 127.2 29.7 Wisconsin 16,588 525.0 1,539.7 374.8 Appleton-Oshkosh-Neenah MSA 1,253 48.9 105.3 21.2 Eau Claire MSA 462 11.5 46.1 10.4 Green Bay MSA 955 28.9 82.7 16.2 Janesville-Beliot MSA 408 14.9 33.6 8.1 Kenosha PMSA 293 9.4 29.7 9.0 La Crosse MSA 249 10.2 45.0 8.7 Madison MSA 1,773 28.0 160.5 72.1 Milwaukee PMSA 4,604 136.7 501.7 83.6 Racine PMSA 361 19.7 41.2 10.0 Sheboygan MSA 1,455 25.0 28.7 6.0 Wausau MSA 471 18.7 33.9 6.9