News 12 covered the latest forecast of Chattanooga metro job growth:
Dr. Howard Wall of UTC’s Center for Regional for Economic Research says that a recent analysis of job growth over the past 18 months shows that the Chattanooga area has lost nearly 2,000 jobs.
He says this is primarily because of losses in the manufacturing and business service sectors.
Dr. Wall said, “There are things locally that will make employment grow faster, but really the situation we’re in now is is national. Manufacturing is the problem and that’s a nationwide issue and in particular automobile. We are a heavy automobile and parts manufacturing hub.”
One area that is growing is the health and education sectors, which he says is not indicative of healthy growth.
Dr. Wall said, “It’s almost recession proof, you know it’s always rising because of the older population so you’re increasing healthcare so it’s good that we’re getting that, but it’s when that’s your only expanding sector or biggest expanding sector, it’s not really a great sign.”
He says that with the ongoing national issues surrounding tariffs and the Strait of Hormuz, our economy will continue to be impacted.
Dr. Wall said, “For example helium is 1/3 of helium comes from Qatar. Some may think you only need helium for balloons, but no you need it for a variety of manufacturing and also MRI machines.”