A Positive Outlook for the Tyler Economy in 2017

TYLER- Economist Ray Perryman is optimistic about the economy in 2017. Perryman was in Tyler Thursday to present his annual economic forecast. Perryman says he sees “a lot of things that are looking good for the economy.” He says we’re coming in with some momentum, in terms of output income, employment numbers have been pretty strong and he sees a lot of positive signs. He does see a lot of uncertainty with people not knowing what the new administration will bring, but, on the whole, he says the signs are looking pretty good.

Perryman says the Tyler area looks very good. He feels Tyler’s economic growth will outpace the state and the nation. Like a lot of areas, Tyler has been impacted by the oil and gas situation. But Perryman says the city has good, solid development going on in the biotechnology and manufacturing fields, and the health care segment continues to grow. He said there is a lot of expansion and a lot of positive things going on. Perryman added, “It’s a good community that people are moving to, retiring to. Your population growth is holding up.I see a lot of good things you can say about Tyler right now.”

Perryman said the Texas economy in 2016 was pretty amazing. We gained around 200,000 jobs during the middle of an oil bust. The last time were were in such a situation, the state lost sveral hundred thousand jobs. Perryman said we didn’t grow as much as we did when we had 1,100 rigs running, “but the Texas economy turned in a very good performance in a very difficult environment, which speaks well to the diversity of Texas.”

And he thinks that will continue in 2017. He says the energy sector is starting to pickup, so he sees a lot of positive things going on. Even though it will be a difficult legislative session with a tight budget and a lot of issues to deal with, Perryman says “I believe the outlook for the state is pretty strong.

Perryman feels it will be a very interesting year. He said if Clinton had won or any of the traditional Republicans in the primary had won, then we would somewhat know what to expect going forward. But he thinks this year we are going to have a lot of surprises. He says ” a lot of things will be done differently than done before, so i think it will be very interesting to see how the economy rocks and rolls with that.”