A statewide economic measure showed surprising signs of life, even tempting its creator to flirt with the notion that North Carolina's economy could finally be recovering.
The index, created by N.C. State University economist Michael Walden, is designed to indicate the direction of the state's economy four to six months into the future.
"The Index surged in November, with all components improving," Walden wrote in today's release. "Is this a sign of an accelerating state economy for the new year?"
Nota bene: This isn't the first time Walden's statewide index has improved since the recession, and it would have to rise several months in a row for it to be meaningful.
However, it did show a surprisingly strong jump of 1.9 percent from October to November. Just as importantly, November 2011 came in 1.3 percent ahead of November 2010, showing an annual gain as well.
It's the second consecutive month that the index has gone up. But when it went up 1.4 percent in October, the annual index was still down by -0.5 percent.
Walden's index was actually slightly higher twice last year than in November, but then it dropped again in the following months. If it continues rising, the state would resume a level of economic strength not seen since mid-2008.
The index is based on five measures: building permits, unemployment benefits, manufacturing wages, manufacturing hours logged and an index of the national economy.
John Murawski has been a full-time newspaper reporter since 1991, with stints at Legal Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy (both in Washington, DC), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Palm Beach Post (in South Florida) before arriving at the N&O in December 2004. At the N&O he covers energy (nuclear, coal, renewable, efficiency), utilities (electric, natural gas, telephone) and telecommunications. His beat includes such publicly traded companies as Progress Energy, Duke Energy, PSNC Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, PowerSecure International, Tekelec, Cisco Systems, AT&T, among others. You can reach him at 919-829-8932 or 
Comments
This wouldn't have anything
Mon, 01/02/2012 - 15:19 — pauld315This wouldn't have anything to do with the readjusted real estate sales numbers that were posted in November would it ? The numbers had been wrong for years so they did an adjustment on their calculations in Novemeber which made everything look better than it is .
So I took economic ocurses
Mon, 01/02/2012 - 15:17 — pauld315So I took economic ocurses in college as well, I think I will come up with some index and then tell people it is up or down. Please publish the details of his "index" that he created so it can be scientifically judged befor making a statement that the economy is improving based on this. This is an example of the N&O publishing a headline to support the idea that the economy is improving prior to the election this year. Is it based on a proven theory, NO ! However,since most people only read the headlines.but that doesn't matter to the N&O.