Syracuse, N.Y.; Albany, N.Y., and Worcester shared the middle-20 ranking, with Springfield ranking somewhere from 41 to 60 on the 100-city list.
SPRINGFIELD – The Pioneer Valley wasn’t hit hardest by the recession, but it is recovering more slowly, according to a study released Monday by the Brookings Institution.
“That means people are less likely to have lost jobs in the downturn,” said Howard J. Wial, a fellow at Brookings,who prepares quarterly reports on the economic performance of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country. “But for those who did lose jobs, the lack of a big bounce back is going to mean it will be harder for them to get new jobs than it would be in some other areas.”
In Wial’s study, the Springfield metropolitan area includes all of Hampden and Hampshire counties and portions of Franklin County. He doesn’t rank the cities 1 through 100, but instead places them in five groups of 20.
Looking during the recession in 2008 and 2009, Springfield ranked in the highest fifth, or among the top-20 performing metropolitan areas of the country, Wial said. But since the recession officially ended in the third quarter of 2009, Springfield has ranked in the bottom 20.
Springfield is not alone. Allentown, Pa.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Philadelphia all suffered the least during the recession and have sluggish recoveries now, Wial said.
Karl J. Petrick, assistant professor of economics at Western New England College, said in real terms Springfield isn’t doing badly.
“The average for a metro region is barely an uptick,” Petrick said. “It’s not like everyone else is growing, and we are not. But it does tell you how hard it is to get anything going in Western Massachusetts.”
What they share is a stable housing market without the booms and busts endemic to the Sun Belt.
“I think that it also has to do with the dominance of high education which is centered in Hampshire County,” Wial said.
Universities provide steady, good-paying jobs.
“They also don’t expand rapidly during the recovery,” he said. “The public sector has lagged the rest of the economy. So you get the good and the bad.”
He said oil wealth is driving growth in some parts of the country such as Dallas and Austin, Texas.
In Greater Springfield, employment has fallen 5.4 percent since the first quarter of 2008, very near the national average and good for a rank of 37 out of 100, with 1 being the best. But in the last quarter, this region saw employment shrink by 0.3 percent, good for 80th out of 100 when 1 is good and 100 is bad.
“Most metro areas held steady,” Wial said.
Hartford ranked as one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country in the last quarter of 2011, Wial said.
He said strong, for now, employment in state government and the aerospace industry helped make that ranking happen.
Boston was in the next-highest group of 20, ranked somewhere from 21 to 40.
Syracuse, N.Y.; Albany, N.Y., and Worcester shared the middle-20 ranking, with Springfield ranking somewhere from 41 to 60 on the 100-city list.