According to Economy.com Maryland's economic diversity has been a saving grace and is responsible for its recent superior economic performance compared to the rest of the nation. Job loss patterns from the past year show that diversity has helped protect the state from the worst of the housing crisis. While Maryland lost just 1.2 non-construction jobs for every construction job lost in the state, nationally, the lose was 4.4 non-construction jobs for every construction job.
Roughly 45% of Maryland's total job loss in the past year has been in construction, despite Maryland's rate of construction job loss over that time (16%) has been comparable to the U.S. rate of construction job loss (15%). That means that Maryland's non-construction economic activities made it through the housing crisis better than the nation and that the State's economy hasn't been as dependent on the housing sector as the rest of the nation.
The September 2009 Economy.com analysis of the Maryland economy details why it believes that the state will recover from the recession more rapidly than the U.S. as a whole. The analysis also highlights the part that federal payrolls, federal contracting of private companies and grants garnered by locally based research universities, such as Johns Hopkins, have played in stabilizing the state economy and keeping it from going under and concludes that these forces will help the State on the road to recovery.
Source: Economy.com/DBED
Writer: Walaika Haskins