Macro Identify the State and the MSA

Macro

Identify the state and the MSA on which you have gathered data.

Oklahoma. MSA (Metropolitan Area) Tulsa. Data accessed on the World Wide Web at http://economy.okstate.edu/outlook/2003/tulsamsa.aspfor Tulsa. Data for U.S. economy overall accessed at http://economy.okstate.edu/outlook/2003/us.asp.

Compare the growth of U.S. GDP to the growth of state and local personal income, and identify where the state or local area led or lagged the nation.

In Tulsa, the growth of personal income was expected to reach 4.4%, above the national average. Per-capita metro income was recorded at $32,262, only slightly below the expected national level of $32,362.3. Tulsa also was only slightly below the national average income level.

Make the same comparison of unemployment rates.

The unemployment rate of Tulsa is expected to edge higher from an average of 4.6 but to remain slightly ahead of the national rate of employment.

4.Can you make any hypotheses to explain any differences in the national and local trends that you identified?

One of the reasons that the Tulsa metro economy has less unemployment than the national average was that it retains a strong farm sector, even though it is an urban location. This sector was less subject to the causes of the most recent economic downturn. Tulsa's status as an urban location also explains why it is slightly lower in unemployment rates than the nation as a whole, as the national average takes into consideration rural communities that are often, especially when they are non-farming, to have less job growth and greater unemployment during difficult or even during recovering economic times. The slightly lower state and personal income rates, as compared to the national average, reflect the fact that Tulsa is being compared to a national average that takes into consideration areas such as New York Cities, which have substantially higher costs of living than Tulsa, and subsequently higher salaries.