Dear Commons Community,
As the country begins to rev up the presidential campaign, the economy is and will be the major issue. Given that the basis of our presidential election is the electoral college, the economic conditions of the individual states becomes important. The Huffington Post has an article reviewing how the states are doing in the job market.
“Three years since the recession ended, 43 states have yet to regain the jobs they lost in the downturn. The figure is a reminder of how weak the nation’s job market remains.
“Overall, the U.S. economy has 3.5 percent fewer jobs than it did before the Great Recession, which began in December 2007. The national unemployment rate has been stuck at 8.2 percent. The states that are the furthest behind in job growth are those that were hit hardest by the housing bust: Arizona, Florida and Nevada.”
On the positive side:
“Despite the weak job market, seven states have regained the jobs they lost during the recession. North Dakota is by far the best. It had 15.7 percent more jobs in June than it did in December 2007. It also had the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at 2.9 percent. The state’s oil production has soared in the past five years…
Alaska had 3.8 percent more jobs in June than before the recession began, the second-largest gain. It has also benefited from oil production. So has Texas, which had 2.4 percent more jobs in June than before the recession, or third best.
The other states that have regained all their lost jobs are: New York, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and South Dakota. New York has seen broad-based gains in education and health care, financial services, and other professional services such as legal services and accounting.”
While there are signs that a number of states are beginning to recover, economists at IHS Global Insight, estimate that 8 states won’t return to their pre-recession peak employment levels until 2016 or later.
This does not bode well for President Obama.
Tony
Unfortunately, I don’t think it matters much who gets elected president. I think the problems we face are inevitable, regardless of who’s in charge. It’s foreordained, and it’s not going to be pretty. After that, we can try to pick up the pieces. But the monetary system is doomed. Plan for it.