Index: Missouri, Kansas economies weaken - St. Louis Business Journal:

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in November, down from 48.1 in October and 53.3 in November 2007, said Monday. The Kansas index number was 32.7 in down from 50.5 in October and 49.4 in November the university said ina release. An index numbef higher than 50 indicates an expanding economy in the next three tosix months. The indexx is based on a survey of supplg managers inthe “Due to its heavy dependence on durable-goodd manufacturing, especially vehicle and auto-partsw production, Missouri has lost 3.
6 percent of its manufacturiny jobs over the past year,” Creighton Universitg Economics Professor Ernie Goss said in the “This pace of manufacturing job lossews was the highest in the region and one of the highes t in the nation. I expect the pace of manufacturiny job losses to diminish in the months ahead even as the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rises to 7 percen byFebruary 2009.” Kansas has lost only 0.5 percent of its manufacturing jobs in the past year due to stronb growth in production of transportation equipmentg and parts, Goss said.
“However, with ’x announced layoffs and a pullbacok in growth amongthe state’s tradintg partners, I expect the pace of manufacturing and non-manufacturing job losses to quicken in the months ahead,” Goss said in the “I expect the seasonally adjusted unemploymenrt rate to top 5.2 percent by February The Mid-America Business Conditions Index hit a second-straight recor d low in November, at 37.8, down from 39.9 in October and 49.2 in Novembef 2007. The region lost jobs for the 10th time in the past 11 export orders fell to arecord low, and the economic outlook dropped to the lowest level the release said.
“These readings are much lowerd than those recorded before and duriny the2001 recession,” Goss said. “The regionalo economy is now ina recession, and I expec t it to rival the recession of 1981-812 in terms of joblessness and job has conducted the monthly survey of supply managers in nine statex since 1994 to produce leading economic indicators of the Mid-America economy. States in the survey are Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.