By Sarah Rayner
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-988520.mp3
Tulsa, OK – While Oklahoma's Business conditions Index declined slightly, it still remains within the healthy range, four points above the average of the Mid-American region. Oklahoma's employment average is below the average, due to the 11,000 manufacturing jobs that have been added over the past year.
Professor Ernie Goss, the director of Creighton's Economic Forecasting Group and the Jack A. MacAllister Chair in Regional Economics, said that the "surveys indicate that this positive trend will continue for the rest of 2011 with growth in manufacturing and nonmanufacturing." The link between manufacturing and energy, food, and transportation has been important drivers of the state economy.
The Business Conditions Index also found that nationally consumer confidence is down to its lowest reading since February 2009, and with the employment and trade coming down, it has not helped.