Aaron Rosenthal is one of a half a dozen students involved in compiling economic indicators for Jacksonville as part of a project headed by Economics Professor Paul Mason.

Whenever UNF economics professor Paul Mason would get a call asking about the cost of living in Jacksonville, he had a difficult time responding because no one was compiling that information in the metro area.

That no longer is the case. Mason has recruited UNF students to start compiling the leading economic indicators and consumer price index for the four-county Jacksonville metropolitan area. Called the Local Economic Indicator Project, LEIP for short, it's something he says he has wanted to do for a long time but never had the funding to develop. Each month since December Mason and the students have been compiling an array of economic information that is then analyzed and provided to the Florida Times-Union for use in its business section.

The students, who are paid, must compile the prices for 130 products and services to measure the Jacksonville CPI. This involves everything from visiting grocery stores to check on the prices of tomatoes to calling liquor stores for the prices on a bottle of wine. In addition to food prices, elements include prices for housing, apartments, prescription drugs, gasoline, infant clothing, computers, used cars and even rates for hotel rooms and local utilities. This process involves similar types and quantities of products as those used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the national CPI. Thus it becomes possible to compare the cost of living in Jacksonville with the rest of the nation, Mason said.

In addition to the CPI, the students help in compiling 11 key leading economic indicators in the area. These include such things as the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, building permits, initial claims for unemployment, local stock prices, help wanted advertising, and interest rate spreads between auto lending rates and CD and checking account rates. So what does all the economic data indicate? Basically Jacksonville seems to be weathering the recession better than the rest of the country. In January, for example, nine of the 11 economic indicators were up compared to the previous month. The two that declined were average weekly hours for employees and the stock price index. The stock price index is composed of the price of 50 stocks of local interest. It's also apparent that although the cost of living is rising in Jacksonville, it appears to be rising at a slower rate than the national average.

"Consistent with most expectations, the data suggest that Jacksonville has not suffered as much as the rest of the nation from the weakened economy and yet inflation seems to be in check," Mason said.

The project has a $15,000 budget which is made possible by contributions from the UNF Foundation Board, the Florida Times-Union, Heritage Capital, Business Valuation Inc. and CNB Florida Bankshares Inc. Students involved on the CPI team are Aaron Rosenthal, Sandra Bevel, Mathew Franklin and Kelly Chase. The LEI team consists of Kelly Busscher and Leif Anderson.