Economic Activity Up in Four Metro Areas in 2008

New U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates show economic activity in the Coeur d’Alene, Lewiston, Pocatello and Idaho Falls metropolitan areas rose in 2008.

Coeur d’Alene and Idaho Falls increased just under 3 percent while Lewiston and Pocatello rose about 3.5 percent. Between 2006 and 2007, Coeur d’Alene posted a double-digit increase while the other three cities posted gains between 5 percent and 7 percent.

Statewide, gross state product was up 1.2 percent to $52.7 billion in 2008 from 2007 compared to 7.3 percent between 2006 and 2007.

“While modest, growth during a recession that hit Idaho so quickly is good news for the stability of much of our economy,” Department of Labor Director Roger B. Madsen said. “As tough as the past 20 months have been, it’s good for Idaho that gross state product was still up in every area but one.” 

The slowdown in construction and layoffs in manufacturing, especially in high technology, reduced by nearly 1 percent the gross state product attributed to the Boise-Nampa metro area, Idaho’s largest population and economic center. It was the first decline in gross state product for the Boise area since the bureau began the calculation in 2001.

Despite the decline in the Boise metro area, the gross state product from the five urban areas combined rose 0.3 percent from 2007 while the gross state product generated by the 33 rural counties was up 3.2 percent. That reflected the pattern during and after the 2001 recession, when urban areas, where much of the pre-recession growth occurred, felt the recession harder than the rural areas, which did not see the kind of growth the metropolitan areas did.