BUSINESS CYCLE INDEX
A
business cycle index tracks cyclical, or month to month, movements in an economy.
The Business Cycle Indexes for South Texas metro areas are constructed using data of
the unemployment rate, nonfarm employment, inflation-adjusted wages and retail sales.
Gauging by this index, the economies of the five metro areas in the region have followed drastically
different patterns since 2008, the onset of the last nationwide recession.
ECONOMIC TRENDS
Laredo and McAllen suffered a relatively more severe downturn in 2009. Their economies did
not fully recover to pre-recession levels until 2014. The economic downturn of San Antonio was
the mildest, and its business conditions have advanced at a much faster pace than the state as a
whole.
Brownsville and Corpus Christi also suffered a relatively mild setback during the Great
Recession of 2007–2009. Since the depths of the contraction in 2009, their indexes inched up
steadily by 2 to 3 percent each year.
Business
BusinessCycle
CycleIndexes
Indexes
120
110
Texas
Corpus Christi
Brownsville - Harlingen
Laredo
McAllen - Edinburg - Mission
San Antonio
100
90
80
2008
2009
2010
2011
Sources:
Federal
Reserve
of Dallas;
author’s calculations.
Sources:Federal
Reserve
Bank ofBank
Dallas;
author's
calculations.
4
Annual Review of South Texas Economy
2012
2013
2014