Although most major cities lost jobs in the recent recession, they have posted strong employment gains over the past 12 years. That hasn't happened in Baltimore.
The number of jobs in the city has slipped 12.4 percent since 1990, and only three times in the past dozen years - in 1997, 1999 and 2000 - have jobs been more plentiful than in the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Meanwhile, from 1990 through 2001, jobs were up 2.3 percent in Indianapolis, 8 percent in Cleveland, 10.9 percent in Pittsburgh and 13 percent in Detroit.
Baltimore "is shedding jobs," said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore. "The city feels like a better place ... but the numbers are just as bad as at any other time."
Baltimore has lost 57,100 jobs since 1990, and it is unclear whether the bottom has been reached.
The losses raise a question that politicians and city development officials have been wrestling with for years: How can a city be a vibrant, thriving place when employment is shrinking?
"What happens is, the city become less dynamic," said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Securities Inc. in Charlotte, N.C. "It is just very hard to make cities work."
Clinch said cities that are losing jobs are often left with lower-income people who have fewer opportunities for employment.
"A city that keeps losing its employment base, you have to then question what the economic function of the city is," he said.
Job losses translate into less tax revenue from corporations and workers, and in lower retail sales, said Jeff Petry, who until last week was an economist at Economy.com, an economic consulting and forecasting firm in West Chester, Pa.
As a result, less money is available for social programs, museums, fighting crime and filling potholes, he said.
"If your budget is shrinking ... from a declining revenue base that definitely makes it harder" to run a vibrant city, Petry said. "You need that tax revenue base."
The city had 3,000 fewer jobs as of April 30 than it had a year earlier, according to preliminary BLS numbers. And a number of companies recently announced plans to pull out.
Euler American Credit Indemnity Co. expects to move its North American headquarters and 160 employees to Owings Mills from the Inner Harbor next year.
The American Urological Association Education & Research Inc. plans to move 80 workers to a new building near Baltimore-Washington International Airport in 2004.
Baltimore is losing not low-wage jobs, but health care, accounting, engineering and data processing positions, Clinch said. "I see Baltimore losing jobs in its core industries," he said.
The trend is years old as Baltimore has lost jobs in banking, insurance and brokerage to out-of-state acquirers.
With the acquisitions of banks such as MNC, Equitable Bancorp and Union Trust, "a huge number of jobs" disappeared, said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of Baltimore Development Corp., the city's economic development arm. "You have seen a continual decrease in manufacturing jobs, notwithstanding [Gov. Parris N. Glendening's] great success ... to hold onto General Motors for another couple of years."
Suburbs have enticed companies with new buildings, lower rent, plenty of parking and low crime.
"We die for 13 acres, 15 acres," Brodie said. "Our struggle is to keep getting development-ready land."
City officials are working to stem the outflow with tax breaks and low-interest loans to companies. The city has moved to revive the east side with a planned biotechnology park that could create 8,000 jobs.
On the west side, it is working to create a biotechnology park and industrial parks, and to revive blighted areas with new shopping centers and housing.
"There are a lot of good things happening," Brodie said. "I think, without being Pollyannaish, that I am optimistic you will see good numbers."
Petry expects Baltimore to benefit as the federal government increases spending on anti-terrorism efforts.
"I would say the potential is on the upside," he said. "It has got a harbor, it is a good transportation hub."
Clinch, too, is hopeful that the decline in jobs will stabilize. In the eight years he has lived in Baltimore, he has never seen so many construction cranes, proposals for hotels and new development projects, he said.
"One would think that this [job loss] is a horrible sign, that Baltimore is on the ropes," Clinch said. "Then you look at what is going on in the city, and the money doesn't say that. I think Baltimore is on the verge of something good if it can continue to improve the fundamentals, which are crime, grime and schools."