Ernie Goss Months Quotations

Of course the loss of the 2,400 GM jobs will hurt the Oklahoma and Oklahoma City economies. However, given the provisions of job banks, the full force of the negative impacts will not be felt until 2008. In the interim, our survey points to solid growth with positive job gains in the months ahead for Oklahoma's economy.

Businesses in North Dakota definitely benefited from much warmer weather for the month according to comments from businesses in our survey. It is difficult to separate out the impacts of weather from more fundamental economic factors, but even so, our survey still points to solid growth in the months ahead.

I expect positive, but weaker hiring in the region in the months ahead.

Job growth in Missouri has definitely slowed over the past several months. In terms of hiring, Missouri experienced January job losses. However, strong new orders should convert to an improving employment picture in the months ahead. Durable goods producers were much more bullish in their economic assessments for January than non-durable goods manufacturers.

Survey results, while somewhat weaker than the rest of the nation, continue to point to growth for Missouri in the months ahead. Of course challenges and opportunities related to automobile industry restructuring will be an important driver in the near and intermediate term.

Increases over the past two months point to solid growth into the second quarter of this year.