Economy here took some big hits in 2009
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
December 27, 2009
by David Nicklaus
This was the year that a couple of pillars supporting the St. Louis economy were badly damaged.
The closing of the last of Chrysler's plants in Fenton, along with the elimination of a shift at General Motors in Wentzville, hurt St. Louis' status as a major auto manufacturing center. And American Airlines' severe flight cutbacks dimmed our luster as a transportation hub.
Other growth engines sputtered, too, with Pfizer eliminating most of its research staff here and Monsanto announcing layoffs. Big job cuts also happened at KV Pharmaceutical, US Fidelis, MEMC Electronic Materials and Sara Lee, among others.
St. Louis isn't alone in its suffering, of course. In fact, we've suffered less than the nation as a whole. The metro area has lost 3.7 percent of its jobs since the recession began two years ago, compared with a 5.1 percent job loss nationwide.
We seem to have fallen back into a familiar pattern: We don't grow much in good times, but we weather the slumps relatively well.
Trouble is, that's a recipe for long-term decline. Ten years ago, in December 1999, metro St. Louis had 25,700 more people working than it has now. Even after a severe recession, the nation shows a slight job gain for the decade.
Many of St. Louis' job losses, moreover, are directly related to those damaged pillars. Automakers have shed more than 11,000 workers in a decade. Transportation and utility companies, which the government lumps together for statistical purposes, have cut 7,600 employees.
What will replace those jobs? In 2010, the honest answer may be nothing. The bleeding hasn't stopped yet, and forecasters say St. Louis will take four or five years to replace the 50,000 jobs we've lost in this recession.
To have any chance of growing faster than that, we're going to have to repair or rebuild our economy's pillars. It's probably a pipe dream to hope for a revival of auto manufacturing here, but moving people and goods around should be one of St. Louis' core strengths.
Our political leaders seem to realize that, and it's encouraging to see some progress on the idea of building a hub for cargo traffic from China. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has committed $1.1 million to the project, and we should find out soon whether it's going to work.
Richard Fleming, president of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association, is optimistic that the China connection is ready to take off. "By the end of 2010, we could actually have flights, have goods being shipped with Chinese freight carriers," he said.
What other opportunities lie ahead? Fleming is hopeful that companies will take their expansion plans out of the deep freeze next year. St. Louis is a finalist for more than 60 corporate projects, he said, including a major financial company's operations center, but most of them are on hold.
A couple of big project announcements next year would boost local morale, but what St. Louis really needs to do is to grow more of its own job-creating companies. On that front, Gov. Nixon sent a welcome signal when he endorsed funneling state dollars to biotechnology research.
His plan, however, depends on future revenue growth and will take years to generate a meaningful amount of money. Realistically, the best we can do in 2010 is to lay some foundation stones for future growth, while hoping that our remaining pillars continue to hold.
