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Only 30 percent of the jobs lost to the recession have returned to the area while the national average is 75 percent of jobs, said William C. Dudley, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Housing prices in Fairfield County have increased only 5 percent since dropping 25 percent from the height of the recession, Dudley said. The average person in the county is $90,000 in debt, he said.
But Fairfield County has strong points in its economy, including an intelligent work force, many colleges in the area, a diverse range of jobs, corporate headquarters and larger companies in the area, and a close proximity to New York City, Dudley said.
“These are an excellent foundation for the economy going forward,” he said during the business council’s summer member luncheon at the Sheraton Stamford Hotel.
On the national level, Dudley said he does not expect much change now with slight improvement from the end of 2013 to the end of 2014, as the tug of war between fiscal drag and the healing process continues. “It will be about the same,” he said, explaining that there is always uncertainty with the economy.
In the end, Dudley said that forecasting since 2009 has been more optimistic, with a faster recovery expected than has been happening. Dudley also said the predictions and opinions he was sharing were his own, not those of the Federal Reserve Bank.
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