Economic Resiliency

Definition

Diversity of employment by sector, measuring the ability of the economy to adapt to change (1= high resiliency and 0= low resiliency)

Why is it Important?

A diverse economy – one with jobs in a variety of sectors – can more easily adapt to change in the event that any one employment sector faces decline. The level of diversity is determined relative to the nation’s economy. If the region has similar proportions of employment in each sector as the nation, the region’s economy is considered diverse and thus more resilient to economic changes.¹

How are we Doing?

In 2016, the St. Louis regional economy was more diverse and resilient than it was in the baseline year, 2010, with an index score of 0.931. Over the last year, the index score for the region surpassed the pre-recession score in 2007 of 0.904. Prior to 2016, the decline in diversity from 2007 to 2015 was caused in part by the loss of manufacturing jobs at a quicker rate than the nation. However, in the last few years manufacturing jobs started to rebound in the St. Louis region. This growth along with employment increases in several other sectors, particularly smaller sectors including agriculture, management, and wholesale trade, contributed to an improvement in diversity from 2010 to 2016.  

Geographic Level

St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). View map.

Notes

¹This indicator is a HUD Flagship Sustainability Indicator. The Flagship Indicators were created for the Sustainable Community Initiative in an effort to develop a common national framework for measuring long-term progress toward sustainable communities.

Data Sources

County Business Patterns (CBP), United States Census Bureau