Data gathered by the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C.-based public policy group, shows that the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area has endured the recession better than most of the nation, avoiding massive job losses and declining housing prices that are crippling other metropolitan areas.

The Capital Region unemployment rate increased 2.3 percent between March 2008 and 2009, outperforming all but 10 of the 100 largest metro areas in the country... there's more good news: Dan Moran, founder and president of Colonie-based Nex-Act says job POSTINGS across the Capital Region rebounded sharply this past week to just over 34-hundred, better than 13% over the week before. " The upward trend started late last week and has continued. This is good to see as through late April and early May, job postings continued to increase week over week for six weeks, and then we hit a three week slump in June. This is good news for job seekers for sure", stated Dan Moran, Founder & President of Next-Act, a career transition management firm located in Colonie.

"Other markets in New York State were flat this past week. Metro New York City did see a slight decrease week-over-week, but not significant...it sounds like a broken record, but little change is any in the top job categories which continue to be education, healthcare and sales opportunities", stated Moran, who believes headline news about the economy has an affect on public perception of the recession.

When economists at The Brookings Institution pooled reports on unemployment, production, and housing across the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, the Capital Region unemployment rate increased 2.3 percent between March 2008 and 2009, outperforming all but 10 of the 100 largest metro areas in the country.

While no part of the country has been spared the impact of bad times, the study finds that the economic collapse has come down hardest on communities that were dependent on the auto industry or tourism and those that have suffered the most from the bursting of the real estate bubble.

Detroit, Michigan was dead last as the weakest metropolitan area with a drop in gross metropolitan product of 10.1 percent from the peak of production before this recession with an accompanying 12.3 percent drop in employment, which included a 6 percent drop in employment over the last year and a 9.3 percent drop in housing prices from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of this year.

For more on the Brookings Institution study, go to www.brookings.edu/metro.aspx