I see a lot of turmoil out there nowadays, from car dealers shutting their doors to retailers sinking into bankruptcy.
So I don’t know how much I buy at first of this “York County is not on an American coast, we are the American heartland and financially conservative, so we’ll be doing OK” idea.
But then again, why else would the Dakotas end up being the strongest economies in the face of this crisis? I read two reports this morning, one on cities where unemployment is low, and one on where people didn’t cut back on driving this year.
Turns out, South Dakota has the two best cities for unemployment, with North Dakota having a strong showing. And North Dakota was the one state where driving didn’t dip during the peak middle months of 2008.
You might want to take note that the figures which showed Sioux Falls as the No. 1 place to look for a job came from a report in July 2008. Unfortunately, that is not the case in November 2008. Wait til the next set of unemployment figures are out. Sioux Falls might still be at the top of the list but, if so, it’s only because the numbers below it are worse. Unemployment is worse here now, in part because of the layoffs that are happening here now and in the past month or so, and also because of all the people coming here to look for non-existent jobs.
And I don’t think any area of the country is now or will be okay, conservatism or not. Frugality is fine, except when the jobs disappear there’s no money to spend anyway. No part of the country is immune to this disasterous economic free fall.
Since when did an eastern city become part of the heartland?