We Just Keep Chugging Along

In the 40 years I have lived in the Hub City, Lubbock has known neither boom for bust–just steady 1 or 2 or maybe 3 percent growth every year.

As our nation begins slowly coming back from the recession/depression that hit almost two years ago, the good folks of Lubbock continue to count our lucky stars for our economy.

While the national unemployment rate jumped from from 9.4 percent to 9.7 percent from July to August, Lubbock actually saw drop from 6.1 percent to 5.7 percent during that same time period.  Lubbock unemployment rate is second only to Amarillo’s 5.6 percent, the lowest in the state.

While those numbers are higher than they were last year, they nowhere approach that of Las Vegas, NV, where the rate grew to 13.4 percent in August, up from 13.1 percent in August.

While these numbers are not comforting to those who are unemployed, they do indicate that when the economy begins to grow again, we should be able to return to almost full employment.

For more information, Walt Nett, business reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, wrote this story: http://lubbockonline.com/stories/091909/bus_494782613.shtml