B.R. continues 2011 slide in Brookings’ MetroMonitor rankings

Baton Rouge steadily fell in the Brookings Institution’s 2011 quarterly rankings of economic recovery within the nation’s 100 largest metros, and it has started 2012 off on the same trajectory. In the latest MetroMonitor report for first-quarter 2012 performance, released this morning, Baton Rouge is ranked No. 89, down from No. 82 at the close of 2011. Baton Rouge was ranked between No. 40 and No. 60 for the first two quarters of 2011, then slipped into the bottom 40 in the third quarter before ending the year among the 20 worst-performing metros on the list. Prior to today’s report, MetroMonitor previously has not ascribed specific numerical rankings to cities, but lumped them into clusters of 20. For the first quarter of 2012, Baton Rouge employment was ranked No. 62, while gross metropolitan product (a measure of products and services generated locally) was No. 67 and unemployment was No. 92. The city’s best ranking was for home prices, at No. 28. New Orleans, meanwhile, has slowly risen in the MetroMonitor rankings over the past year and holds the coveted No. 1 ranking in the latest report. See the statistics in the latest MetroMonitor report that are specific to Baton Rouge here; the complete metro rankings in the report here; and Brookings’ news release on what the metros’ performance during the first quarter of 2012 says about the nation’s economic recovery here.