Economic Indicators of the College Station-Bryan MSA, February 2019

Abstract

The Business Cycle Index for the month of December 2018 rose at an annualized rate of 4.6%, slightly above the long-run average. Nonfarm employment in College Station-Bryan rose slightly between November and December 2018 and is up 2.7% from its December 2017 figure. The unemployment rate, while low by historical standards, increased to 3% in December 2018 from 2.8% in November. Real taxable sales rose 0.8% in December and was 9.3% higher than sales in December 2017. In our focus section we discuss how official poverty rates for “college towns� are misleading because of the relatively large share of college students and show that in applying a modified poverty measure, the rate in Brazos County drops from 26% to 15% after adjusting for college students.