Nebraska Business Forecast

[Coyote]

Business in Nebraska

Nebraska Outlook
he panel remains optimistic about the outlook for the Nebraska economy. Employment will continue to expand in Nebraska. Aggregate farm income is expected to grow rapidly in 2007 and it will remain high in 2008 and 2009.  

Manufacturing employment also is expected to grow robustly. Employment growth will help generate growth in both income and taxable sales in Nebraska. Total nominal income growth, including farm income is expected to average 5.9% per year over the outlook period. Adjusting for an average inflation rate of 2.5%, income growth will average 3.4% in real terms. Growth in net taxable sales will average just over 4% per year from 2007 through 2009.

Employment
Nebraska will experience broad-based employment growth over the next three years, with consistent  growwth in all sectors. Even construction employment is expected to expand beginning in 2007 as the sector begins to recover, after declining in both 2005 and 2006. Manufacturing employment also will grow dur-ing the outlook period, but the faster rates of growth are expected in the services, financial, and transportation industries. Job growth is expected to be tepid in the wholesale and retail trade industry, reflecting a pattern exhibited since 2000. With solid growth in sales over the period, these results suggest that strong labor productivity growth has taken place in these industries.