While residential construction remains strong in suburban St. Louis, Kansas City and Minnesota, this region is wrestling with severe cutbacks in the aerospace industry. Wichita, Kan., was hit hard by layoffs at Boeing, Bombardier, Raytheon and other manufacturers of passenger aircraft.
Boeing's layoffs in the St. Louis area also made headlines, although some of those jobs may return soon to service Boeing's new $4.5 billion contract to build F-15 fighter planes.
Office construction in the region is also weak, with Minneapolis' vacancy rate at 12 percent downtown, and nearly 14 percent in the suburbs. According to the most recent Grubb-Ellis report, St. Louis has the strongest office market, with vacancy rates of only 9 percent downtown and 11 percent in the suburbs.
(in millions of dollars)
MSA — Metropolitan Statistical Area
PMSA — Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area
CMSA — Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area
EC — Electrical contractor employees. Actual numbers.
M — Manufacturing employees in thousands.
F/S/RT — Commercial accounts (finance, services, retail trade) employees in thousands.
G — Government employees in thousands.