Dennis Jansen Interviewed by KRHD News on Economic Indicators

Summary: On Monday, August 23, 2021, Director Dennis Jansen spoke to KRHD News on the state of the local economy’s recovery and recently released data from the August Economic Indicators report.
 
Several economic indicators show that the economy has finally returned to pre-pandemic levels. “On the one hand, if you look at statistics like Gross Domestic Product, or if you look at statistics like personal consumption expenditures, or, locally, if you look at statistics like taxable sales, we’re definitely back to where we were pre-pandemic,” said Jansen.
 
The labor market, however, continues to lag behind levels last seen before the pandemic-induced business shutdowns. Jansen shared, “So, there’s both retirements and there’s people staying at home for childcare reasons or health reasons, and I think there are some incentive effects because we’ve had a period of federal supplements – the unemployment compensation payments, which has ended.”
 
The story also describes the local staffing shortage.
 
The full interview on KHRD can be found here.