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Business Journal PO Box 510 Salisbury, MD 21803-0510
The Regional Chamber Newsletter
Vol. 14 No.11
Dedicated to the Principles of Free Enterprise
June 2011
Shown is an aerial view of Peninsula Regional Medical Center, which has undergone substantial improvements in recent years and is a major contributor to the local economy. Peninsula Regional is recognized for its outstanding services and professionals. Photo courtesy of Peninsula Regional Medical Center
Mid-year economic outlook for Wicomico
What’s in store for businesses and the real estate market? By Carol Kinsley
There are some positives when examining Wicomic County’s economy, David Ryan, executive director of Salisbury-Wicomico Economic Development Inc., reported to the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce at its May 19 general membership meeting.
Ryan said he saved the positives so he could finish his report on a positive note. They were: the unemployment rate is below the national average; there has been a moderate decline in the housing inventory; the county has experienced low industrial vacancy rates, and there has been some interest in capital investment which, hopefully, precedes
employment gains, especially in larger industries. Ryan started his report by putting things in context. “We reviewed past recessions,” he said, listing the mid-70s OPEC oil embargo, the touchy oil markets during the Iranian hostage situation, the savings and loan crisis of the early 1990s and the dot.com collapse in the
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2000s. “We had a pretty good stretch of economic activity and growth from 1982 to 2007,” he said, because those recessions — although painful were short. “They were not as long nor deep and broad as the recession we’ve just been through and are still feeling Continued on page nine