Looking Up: Pockets Of Economic Strength Millions of Americans are still searching for jobs or facing home foreclosures. For them, the Great Recession drags on into its fifth year. But for others, the U.S. economy is looking up.
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Looking Up: Pockets Of Economic Strength
In some sectors and job markets, the U.S. economy is looking up.
Economists say job growth plays a big role in how consumers are feeling about the U.S. economy. Robert Galbraith/Reuters/Landov hide caption
Workers build cars on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., in December. As auto sales boom, parts suppliers are having a tough time finding the labor they need to catch up, having lost workers during the recession. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images hide caption
Auto Parts Suppliers Hiring As Fast As They Can
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AGCO employees work on the assembly line in the company's newly expanded Jackson, Minn., manufacturing plant. The expansion brought the facility's staff from 850 to 1,050 workers and allows the plant to make tractors that were previously made in France. Jackson Forderer for Minnesota Public Radio hide caption
An Illinois farmer checks the blades on his combine while harvesting corn last October. The value of the 2011 U.S. corn crop was more than $76 billion. Seth Perlman/AP hide caption
Josh James co-founded the Web analytics site Omniture in 1996, then sold it to Adobe for $1.8 billion in 2009. Domo is James' latest startup. Derek Smith hide caption
Oil workers on a drilling rig owned by Chesapeake Energy in Ohio. Students are flocking to the energy field. Gus Chan/The Plain Dealer/Landov hide caption
While parts of the U.S. economy struggle, other sectors are seeing growth. Here, job seekers talk with recruiters at a career fair in Manhattan last month. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption