RICHMOND, Va., Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The economic slowdown has hit the
manufacturing sector particularly hard. Consider the furniture industry. By
some estimates, domestic residential furniture shipments were down more than
10 percent in 2001 compared to the previous year. "I have seen the industry go
south before. But I haven't seen it go as far south as fast as it has this
time," says Tom Culbreth of North Carolina State University. In the recently
released issue of Region Focus, Aaron Steelman reports on the import
competition facing American furniture makers and examines whether those firms
are adapting to the new challenges confronting them.
Last summer, floodwaters drenched southern West Virginia -- a region that
was already reeling from significant job cuts in coal mining. Charles Gerena
finds that many of the communities in the region were making the difficult
transition to a post-coal economy before the floods hit and that their degree
of progress will likely determine their chances of recovery.
Also in this issue:
* Feature: "Smart Growth" Comes to the Research Triangle area of North
Carolina
* Community Profile: Huntington, W.Va.
* Person Profile: Marc Pelaez, Virginia Research and Technology Advisory
Commission
Region Focus, a quarterly business magazine published by the Federal
Reserve Bank of Richmond, covers the economy and business activities of the
District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and
most of West Virginia.
For copies free of charge, contact the Bank's Public Affairs Department at
804-697-8111. The article abstracts are available at
http://www.rich.frb.org/pubs/regionfocus .
SOURCE Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
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Related links:
http://www.rich.frb.org
http://www.rich.frb.org/pubs/regionfocus
CONTACT:
Aaron Steelman, Associate Editor, Region
Focus, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, +1-804-697-2658
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