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contact info

Director: Geoffrey J. D. Hewings; hewings@illinois.edu
Location: 607 S. Matthews; Urbana, IL 61801-3671
Phone/Fax: 217-333-4740 (phone); 217-244-9339 (fax)

Welcome to R | E | A | L

The Regional Economics Applications Laboratory focuses on the development and use of analytical models for urban and regional forecasting and economic development.

REAL's mission is to provide timely, high quality analytical economic information for a variety of uses such as public policy decision making by public sector agencies and for strategic marketing in the private sector. REAL's capabilities revolve around comprehensive state and metropolitan models that integrate econometric and input-output analysis to provide for both impact and forecasting analyses.

While REAL's primary focus has been on the economies of the Midwest, REAL has collaborated in the development of models for several regions on the east coast. In addition, two models have been constructed for states in Brazil and a third is under construction. A model for the Jakarta Metropolitan region is also under construction.

REAL draws its staff from cooperating institutions and advanced graduate students in the fields of economics, geography, urban and regional planning, computer science and mathematics. Many of the projects the students work on then become the basis for thesis and dissertations.

Monitoring the Economy

- Illinois Economic Review Report - August: Professional & business services and Leisure & hospitality have both recovered to its previous employment peak level. The 12-month-ahead job recovery forecasts show that the future recovery rates will increase for sectors such as Financial activities, Trade, transportation & utilities (TTU), Professional & business services, Leisure & hospitality, and Other services. more (Released: 09-30-2013)

- IL Job Report - August: Illinois added 4,800 jobs in August 2013, compared with a revised 7,500 job gains in July 2013. Compared to August 2012, Illinois has added 55,400 jobs. The three-month moving average of jobs, a more stable measure of labor market, was up by 6,867 jobs per month. more (Released: 09-30-2013)

- MSA Job Report -August: Chicago shed 650 jobs at -0.02% in August 2013, compared to a revised 7,741 job gains last month. Meanwhile, Downstate gained 5,450 jobs at 0.33%, compared to a revised 241 job loss in July. more (Released: 09-30-2013)

-The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) - September: The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 97.8 in September from 91.8 in August. The rise is attributed to the increase in the Chicago area employment in manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors. more (Released: 10-22-2013)

- MSA Business Index and Forecast - July: According to the one-year-ahead forecast, MSA Bloomington, Champaign, Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield are likely to perform better than Chicago while MSA Decatur and Kankakee are likely to perform worse than Chicago. more (Released: 07-15-2013)

- Housing Tax incentive: While 84,559 homebuyers in Illinois put in a claim for the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit, only 25,504 sales were actually boosted by the incentive more (Released: 09-21-2010)

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