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Watch the Video

By Linsey Davis

WASHINGTON — The number of American workers drawing state unemployment benefits hit another record high this month. If you’re one of them, you’re probably wondering what you need to do to track down a job.

Location, location, location – that mantra doesn’t just apply to real estate. Turns out the recession can discriminate based on where you live.

California, Florida, and Nevada — are all feeling the pinch of foreclosures. The financial sector is taking its toll on New York and Chicago. While the auto industry has positioned the Great Lakes states smack dab in between a rock and a hard place due to slumping manufacturing jobs.

“Sectors that are still hiring are again: government, education and health,” said Jeremy Nowak, CEO, Reinvestment Fund and Policy Map.com.

University towns top the rankings of best places to live during a downturn.

“State college PA, healthy town, right? Penn State University is the main employer there , it’s not going away anywhere, any time soon. Think about college towns that are also state capitals, right? Madison, Wisconsin; Austin, Texas,” said Nowak.

Government towns also tend to be relatively stable. Even when budgets are slashed, cities don’t tend to go out of business.

“I would say Washington, DC, obviously, federal government, but also suburbs, right outside of Washington, DC,” said Nowak.

While the rest of country is in significant decline, Texas is described as being flat.

“Good education and medical sector and also energy sector that still relatively healthy,” said Nowak.

But should you pack up the U-haul for a job?

“The household has to make a decision, based on their own self-interest, and what they think the best opportunity is, for them,” said Nowak.

In that case, Arlington, Virginia, Washington DC, and Durham, North Carolina may all be good places to call home at least in a recession.

This article by Lindsey Davis aired on 94 ABC News affiliates on friday March 19th, 2009.

(Philadelphia) March 19, 2009- Airing tonight on ABC News is an interview with Jeremy Nowak, CEO and President of The Reinvestment Fund regarding the geography of the recession. ABC News was drawn to the employment data from TRF’s demographic data and mapping tool www.policymap.com that BusinessWeek had used to write several articles in the past few months on the same topic.

Where is the recession hitting hardest? Where might there be best opportunities? Why?

BusinessWeek used PolicyMap’s data and geographic information system to consider cities across the country that had high concentrations of jobs in “safe” industries, such as: healthcare, education, law, energy and the government. Based on this indicator, it posited that cities such as Arlington, VA; Washington, D.C.; Durham, NC; Madison, WI; Boston, MA; Pittsburgh, PA; Baltimore, MD; Baton Rouge, LA; New Orleans, LA; and Philadelphia, PA may be more recession-proof.

“We developed PolicyMap to help policymakers and others – including reporters – to have the ability to quickly access important, sometimes hard-to-understand data,” said Nowak.

Jeremy Nowak’s interview is being distributed by ABC News tonight. The original BusinessWeek.com articles, including a sideshow of all 20 cities, can be found at PolicyMap’s blog (http://blog.policymap.com/?p=1586) or at businessweek.com.

About PolicyMap

PolicyMap is an online mapping tool that makes it quick and easy to gather and analyze geocentric information such as demographics, real estate, crime statistics and more. PolicyMap is a service of The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a not-for-profit leader in the financing of neighborhood revitalization. TRF developed PolicyMap to empower decision makers with better access to credible market and demographic data. PolicyMap can be found online at www.policymap.com. To learn more abut TRF, visit www.trfund.com.

PolicyMap on ABC News Tonight!

Watch your local ABC News tonight for an interview with Jeremy Nowak, the CEO and President of The Reinvestment Fund regarding the geography of the recession. A few months ago, BusinessWeek.com used PolicyMap data to talk about cities that might best survive this recession and ABCNews wanted to explore the topic further.  They asked him questions about where the recession is hitting hardest or where the best opportunities might exist.

BusinessWeek used PolicyMap data to look at cities across the country that had high concentrations of jobs in “safe” industries, such as: healthcare, education, law, energy and the government and came up with the list of “top 20” recession proof cities below.

Jeremy Nowak’s interview is being distributed by ABC News tonight. The original BusinessWeek.com articles can be found in our News section (http://blog.policymap.com/?p=1586) or at businessweek.com.

PolicyMap is a new website that allows visitors to search for federally-funded organizations in their area. It also allows people to get basic statistics, such as demographic, educational, and economic information. The interactive map allows you to easily focus in on areas of interest. Use the tabs at the top to choose what type of information you want to see.

Also note: when you are looking at the statistical map, the source of the data (i.e., United States Census Bureau) is listed on the left-hand side of the screen.

Click here to read this article by the Grafton Library which appeared on Your Dose of MSG on March 16, 2009.

“We have launched a housing plan that will help reasonable families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages.

It’s a plan that won’t help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values.  Americans who will not be able to take advantage of the lower interest rates that this plan has already helped to bring about.  In fact, the average family who refinances today can save nearly $2,000 per year on their mortgage.”

- President Barack Obama – Domestic Priorities to a Joint Session of Congress (2/24/09)

Check out PolicyMap.com, a great resource for finding the location of federally funded institutes nationwide, like public housing, schools, as well as statistics from the census and other data sources.  While they do offer a premium service with more features (mostly not useful), the basic service will do a lot for you.  You can get maps, reports, and tables of data on a variety of factors.  You can layer the different data one on top of the other to correlate things like the location of schools vs. household income, or poverty levels correlated with infant mortality.  You can view things so easily, the site truly did amaze me when I started clicking around.  You can zoom in and out of the map, change data parameters, or remove choices all with a click.  It’s very easy to use, data-rich, and generally awesome.  See the example below, and please note that clearly there are not a lot of people of Asian descent where I live.

Click Here to read the full article.
This article by Sarah Houghton-Jan on Librarian in Black on Tuesday March 10th, 2009.

“Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs.  More than 90% of these jobs will be in the private sector, jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels, laying broadband and expanding mass transit.”

- President Barack Obama – Domestic Priorities to a Joint Session of Congress (2/24/09)

PolicyMap now offers unemployment data and information about people in the labor force. The interactive map below shows most current unemployment data from BLS at the county level.

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“In fact, the recovery plan provides a tax cut – that’s right, a tax cut – for 95% of working families. An, by the way, these checks are on the way.”

- President Barack Obama – Domestic Priorities to a Joint Session of Congress (2/24/09)

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“The third challenge we must address is the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America.

In a global economy, where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity.  It is a prerequisite.

Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma, and yet just over half our citizens have that level of education.”

- President Barack Obama – Domestic Priorities to a Joint Session of Congress (2/24/09)