Category Archives: Brookings Institution

Export growth boosts metro Knoxville economy

Exports are playing a significant role in Knoxville’s continuing economic recovery, according to a new Brookings Institution report
The value of the metro area’s exports last year totaled $4.29 billion, or 12.7 percent of the region’s total output, according to a the “Export Nation 2013” report released this week.
Motor vehicle parts and miscellaneous fabricated metal products were two largest export sectors at 10. 5 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively, of the region’s export total.
The next largest export sectors were precision instruments, financial services and management & consulting, all at slightly more than 3 percent of the region’s total.
Knoxville ranked 73rd out of the 100 largest metro areas in total value of exports. However, Knoxville’s export growth in the last three years ranked among the best in the country, according to Brookings.
Knoxville’s 11 percent export growth from 2009-2012 ranked 13th nationally.
“Exports have been a critical driver of the post-recession recovery in the U.S. and its metro areas,” said Brad McDearman, director of the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Export Initiative and co-author of the report. “Metro leaders that make boosting exports an economic development priority are better positioning their regions for success in the more globally-connected 21st century economy.”
Click here for the full Brookings report.

Knoxville moves higher on Brookings report

Knoxville’s economy improved over the summer, rising two spots to 12th in the Brookings Institution’s latest “recovery performance” rankings.

The think tank’s MetroMonitor report ranks the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan economies each quarter based on job creation, unemployment rate, metro economic output and housing prices.

For the 2012 second quarter Knoxville ranks 12th overall, 18th for employment, and 14th for output and house prices.

Knoxville ranked 14th overall in the first quarter.

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Brookings: Knoxville 16th on education gap index

Knoxville fares better than most metropolitan areas nationwide in a new report by the Brookings Institution that examines how education effects unemployment.

Among the 100 largest metropolitan markets, Knoxville ranks 16th on the education gap index. (Ranking 1st indicates the top performing metro and 100th is the worst performer.)

“Narrowing the education gap is particularly important for improving the long-term health of metropolitan economies,” Jonathan Rothwell, senior research associate and report author, says in a news release. “Metro areas with wide education gaps have higher unemployment, but metro areas with narrow education gaps have lower unemployment, more job creation, and more job openings.”

The education gap index is calculated as “as the years of education required by the average job vacancy in a metropolitan area divided by the years of education attained by the average working-age person in that metropolitan area,” according to the report.

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Knoxville economy 15th on metro recovery index

Knoxville’s economy continues to recover faster than most other metropolitan areas across the country, despite slipping slightly in the latest Brookings Institution rankings released today.

Metropolitan Knoxville’s recovery performance ranks 15th on Brookings’ most recent MetroMonitor index of economic recovery – down from 12th in the previous quarterly index.

The MetroMonitor report ranks the pace of recovery in the 100 largest metro economies based on job creation, unemployment rate, metro economic output and housing prices.

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Knox public transit ranks low in Brookings study

No car? Good luck getting to work in metro Knoxville. When it comes to connecting people without cars to job opportunities, Knoxville has one of the weakest public transit systems in the country, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution.

Of the 100 largest metros, Knoxville ranks 98 in coverage rate, or the percentage of households without a personal vehicle – zero-vehicle households – that have access to public transportation, Brookings reports.

Only Jackson, Miss. (99) and Greeneville, S.C. (100) rank lower in the think tank’s study.

Tennessee’s other large metros all rank higher than Knoxville. Memphis has the best coverage rate ranking at 62. Nashville is 94 and Chattanooga is 96.

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Brookings report: Knoxville economy improving

Job creation remains sluggish and housing prices continue to fall, but Knoxville’s regional economy is in better shape than most of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country, according to a Brookings Institution report released today.

Knoxville ranks 22nd in unemployment rate — 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 — and 24th in employment rate change — 0.3 percent growth — from the third to the fourth quarter, according to Brookings March 2011 MetroMonitor.

Metro Knoxville’s gross metropolitan product has grown 4.8 percent since the second quarter of 2009 (the official end of the recession), good for a 45th ranking. However, Knoxville’s 1 percent GMP growth in the fourth quarter ranked 27th in the country.

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Brookings: Economy depends on fixing transportation system

Dodging potholes on the way to work this morning motivated me to read the recent Brookings Institution’s paper on fixing the national transportation system. Nation%27s+Bridges-One+Year+L.jpg

In a nutshell, the report released earlier this week says the transportation system is broken and current state and federal funding sources are woefully inadequate to fix the problem.

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Brookings: Manufacturing isn’t dead but it needs help

Manufacturing has suffered severe job losses since 2000, but it remains critical to the economy of some states, including Tennessee, according to a think tank report released today.

The report calls on states to rethink their economic development policies and to invest in “advanced manufacturing centers” that would provide research and education services for manufacturers.

“America’s manufacturing sector must be reinvigorated in order to build a healthy economy, and the nation’s states and metropolitan areas are strongly positioned to be the vanguard for this effort,” according to a report from the Brookings Institution.

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Brookings: Metro markets key to export growth

Metropolitan areas will play a major role in increasing U.S. exports, says a new study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy organization.

Knoxville is one of the smaller metro markets in the country, but it is holding its own when it comes to export growth, according to “Export Nation,” the study released Monday.

Metro Knoxville currently is the 72nd largest export market in the country, producing about $3.5 billion worth of exported goods and services, the study says.

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