MONTANA BUSINESS QUARTERLY

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Volume 48, Number 1, Spring  2010

Economic Recovery

What's Ahead for Men and Women Workers?

by

Wendy A. Stock

The recession's impact on men and women differed nationally and even generated the coining of a new term, mancession, to describe the more negative impacts of the recession on males. Higher rates of job loss for males had the related impact of pushing the percentage of female workers in the national economy upward, to the point where data indicate that women now constitute a near majority of the nation's workforce. The recession's impacts on men and women in Montana have matched some, but not all, of the national trends.

Slow Getting Started

by

Patrick M. Barkey

The deepest recession in several generations is finally over, but the hangover remains. Growth has begun slowly in the national economy, with a very modest uptick in housing and industrial output providing the spark. Expansion will be helped by exports and the weak dollar, but will be held in check by weak consumer spending and tighter credit. Stronger growth is not foreseen until 2011, and then the economy remains in a fragile state.

The Transition to Growth

by

Patrick M. Barkey

It certainly has been a trying time for the Montana economy. The state remains in the grip of its worst recession since the 1980s, and news of closures and layoffs is depressingly easy to find. Yet it is also apparent that a long-awaited recovery in the economy has begun to take hold.

Recession Impacts Different in Every County

by

Paul E. Polzin

There is almost no place in Montana that escaped the recession, but the recession impacts do vary from city to city. This article provides a look at the economy in the following counties: Missoula, Flathead, Butte-Silver Bow, Cascade, Lewis and Clark, Yellowstone, Gallatin, Fergus, and Hill.

Montana's Housing Sector

by

Scott Rickard

It has been a shaky year for Montana's housing sector. Montana is experiencing many of the problems facing the rest of the nation, albeit to a lesser degree. Home prices are declining in some parts of state. Sales and construction are both down relative to previous years. Mortgage defaults are growing, but are still lower than the national average.

Conscious Consumption

by

Norma P. Nickerson

Travel and recreation around Montana and the nation took a few hits in 2009 due to the economic situation around the world. This year will end as a year in which some areas did well while others struggled. This somewhat mixed assessment of the travel and recreation iindustry's performance in 2009 seems to be the result of changes in the way consumers are traveling and spending.

Women's Health Care

Why It Matters in the Health Care Reform Debate

by

Gregg Davis

One group that is large in number and a frequent user of health care is women. Compared to men, women are more likely to be raising children alone, have lower incomes and hence more likely to be on Medicaid, and have higher rates of chronic illnesses. Women are also more likely to use community health centers and other government programs that provide health services to low-income individuals. Improving the health of all population groups is vital if we are to succeed in changing the current unsustainable path of health care spending.

by

George Haynes

Montana agricultural producers have weathered the financial storm better than other industrial sectors and agricultural producers from other states. Preliminary studies in Montana suggest that 2009 net farm income will decline about 20 percent from 2008 net farm income of $690 million, while the U.S. Department of Agriculture is predicting a decline of more than 30 percent from 2008 for all agricultural producers in the United States.

Montana's Manufacturing Industry

by

Todd A. Morgan and Charles E. Keegan III

Despite the recent recession and extensive declines in wood products, manufacturing remains a substantial component of Montana's economy. Measured as products left the plants, Montana manufacturers had sales nearing $7 billion in 2009. The state's manufacturers generated more than 21,400 jobs and workers earned more than $1 billion in labor income during 2009.

Montana's Forest Products Industry

by

Todd A. Morgan and Charles E. Keegan III

Economic conditions for Montana's forest products industry went from very bad in 2008 to dreadful in 2009. Lumber consumption in the United States was at its lowest level since the current statistical series began in 1950. Annual U.S. housing starts, which reached 2.1 million in 2005, fell to less than 1 million in 2008. In 2009, housing starts fell to just over 550,000 units, their lowest level in more than six decades. In response to the ongoing declines in housing, lumber prices dropped nearly 50 percent from 2005 to 2009.