Reality Check > Data-Driven or Cheerleading?



MesaZona blog sometimes aggregates the news to compare and contrast what's published in different media to reflect viewpoints of the sources providing a narrative and a context for what message the source wants to put into the discourse of the public domain.
Mike Sunnucks reporting in the Phoenix Business Journal on Thursday, September 24, 2015 @ 1:22 p.m. MST wrote this:
" . . . Phoenix’s regional GDP grew by 1.8 percent last year, according to new data from the U.S. Commerce Department.
That is 148th among U.S. metros . . . "
Readers of this blog might want to note a post here from September 13 where the site Wallet Hub ranked Metro Phoenix #143 out of 150 for recovery from The Great Recession according to their analytics.
Mike goes on: ". . . It has to raise a little concern that the Phoenix region can’t muster more economic gains . . . especially as we remain a growth-oriented economy. . . The lackluster growth also shows why we continue to have some soft numbers and the highest office vacancy rate among major U.S. markets. . .
All the political, economic development and other cheerleading can't change that."
Read more from article >> http://m.bizjournals.com/phoenix/blog/business/2015/09/reality-check-phoenix-s-economic-growth-148th.html

Some good data from the U.S Department of Labor for June 2015 came out last month
Changing Compensation Costs in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area – June 2015
Total compensation costs for private industry workers increased 2.3 percent in the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. metropolitan area for the year ended June 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Richard J. Holden noted that one year ago, Phoenix experienced an annual gain of 1.1 percent in compensation costs. Locally, wages and salaries, the largest component of compensation costs, advanced at a 2.3-percent pace for the 12-month period ended June 2015. Nationwide, total compensation costs increased 1.9 percent and wages and salaries rose 2.2 percent from June 2014 to June 2015.
The Employment Cost Index for September 2015 is scheduled to be released on Friday, October 30, 2015, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).
Here's a link to the ECI report >> http://www.bls.gov/regions/west/news-release/employmentcostindex_phoenix.htm

More good data from U.S Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis from a news release on Friday, September 25, 2015

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, Friday, September 25, 2015 BEA 15—45

National Income and Product Accounts
Gross Domestic Product: Second Quarter 2015 (Third Estimate)
Corporate Profits: Second Quarter 2015 (Revised Estimate)

Real gross domestic product -- the value of the goods and services produced by the nation’s economy less the value of the goods and services used up in production, adjusted for price changes -- increased at an annual rate of 3.9 percent in the second quarter of 2015, according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP increased 0.6 percent.
See whole press release >> http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2015/gdp2q15_3rd.htm