CRER director and chief economist Howard Wall was featured in a story about the signs of a cooling local labor market: Across the United States, manufacturing has slowed for the past two years, Wall said, and that has probably been a bit more pronounced locally. “It’s been a negative for a full year for Chattanooga,”…
9/11/25: Report: Tennesseans May Not Be Sharing in State’s Success
CRER director and chief economist Howard Wall provided comments about a report outlining ways in which Tennessee’s economic success might not be felt by everyone. Howard Wall, an economist based at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said looking at only some costs, rather than at the inflation rate across all goods, can provide a skewed…
8/14/2025: CRER Releases Summer Forecast of Chattanooga Metro Employment
The CRER produces quarterly forecasts of the growth of nonfarm payroll employment in the Chattanooga MSA. Forecasts depend on the consensus forecast of the U.S. economy from the Blue Chip Economic Indicator survey. Our new forecast is a net gain of one thousand jobs in the third quarter, and for growth to slowly return to…
8/8/25: Audi Considers Chattanooga as Stateside Option to Avoid Trump Tariffs
Newschannel 9 did a story on a potential Audi factory in Chattanooga. CRER director and chief economist Howard Wall provided his take: “European companies also will face tariffs. I think currently, 15% is what they’ve negotiated, but all of this is open for exemptions for particular companies.” “They seem to be trying to expand the…
8/6/25: What’s the Impact? Chattanooga Braces as Trump’s Tariffs Hit Local Manufacturers
In a recent story on Local 3 News in Chattanooga, CRER director and chief economics Howard Wall provided his take on the effects of tariffs: “They make us poorer as consumers because we pay more for things. And for producers, they’re not good.” Wall went on to say, “If we do produce things that we didn’t, that…