This 2014 volume of An Economic Report to the Governor of the State of Tennessee is the 38th in a series of annual reports compiled in response to requests by state government officials for assistance in achieving greater interdepartmental consistency in planning and budgeting efforts sensitive to the overall economic environment. Both short-term, or business cycle-sensitive forecasts, and longer-term, or trend forecasts, are provided in this report. Tennessee forecasts, current as of January2014, are based on an array of assumptions, particularly at the national level, which are described in Chapter One. Chapter Two details evaluations for major sectors of the Tennessee economy, with an agriculture section provided by the University of Tennessee Agricultural Policy Analysis Center. Chapter Three discusses Tennessee’s role in the international economy and presents the long-run outlook and forecast for the state. Chapter Four presents manufacturing trends and advanced manufacturing in Tennessee. The primary purpose of this annual volume—published, distributed, and financed through the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the Tennessee Department of Revenue, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and the Appalachian Regional Commission—is to provide wide public dissemination of the most-current possible economic analysis to planners and decision-makers in the public and private sectors.

This 2015 volume of An Economic Report to the Governor of the State of Tennessee is the 39th in a series of annual reports compiled in response to requests by state government officials for assistance in achieving greater interdepartmental consistency in planning and budgeting efforts sensitive to the overall economic environment. Both short-term, or business cycle-sensitive forecasts, and longer-term, or trend forecasts, are provided in this report. Tennessee forecasts, current as of January 2015, are based on an array of assumptions, particularly at the national level, which are described in Chapter One. Chapter Two details evaluations for major sectors of the Tennessee economy, with an agriculture section provided by the University of Tennessee Agricultural Policy Analysis Center. Chapter Three discusses Tennessee’s role in the international economy and presents the long-run outlook and forecast for the state. Chapter Four presents Tennessee’s labor market before and after the Great Recession.The primary purpose of this annual volume—published, distributed, and financed through the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the Tennessee Department of Revenue, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and the Appalachian Regional Commission—is to provide wide public dissemination of the most-current possible economic analysis to planners and decision-makers in the public and private sectors.