Are you ready for some mildly encouraging news?
States that got hit hardest by the recession have posted some of the largest gains in employment and reductions in unemployment over the past year, even though the national jobless rate remains 9.1 percent, a Fiscal Times analysis of the latest jobs data shows.
Thirty-nine out of 50 states and the District of Columbia saw their unemployment rates decline over the past year, a period when the national unemployment rate dropped a point. While the parade was led by a 1.8 percentage point drop in Nevada, the gambling capital of the nation is still reeling from the collapse of housing construction and home foreclosures. Its unemployment rate remains at a staggeringly high 13.3 percent.
But other hard-hit states that saw solid reductions in unemployment over the last year are clearly on the rebound. Michigan, whose automobile industry is recovering after a federal bailout, added nearly 50,000 jobs in the past year. Its unemployment rate dropped 1.2 percentage points to 10.1 percent or just one point above the national average.
California is also showing signs of a comeback. The nation’s largest state added over 233,000 jobs in the past year, bringing its unemployment rate down by seven-tenths of a percentage point to 11.4 percent. “Most of the job growth is in high tech and exports,” said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study of California’s Economy. “Many of the companies in Silicon Valley are growing at 3 percent.”
Florida is also showing signs of recovery amid a continuing housing slump. The state has added over 77,000 jobs in the past year, dropping its unemployment rate 1.2 percentage points to 10.6 percent.
The top rebounders weren’t limited to those states that suffered the worst effects of the recession. Oregon has seen its unemployment rate fall by a point to 8.9 percent in the past year after adding 24,000 jobs. Arizona also knocked nearly a point off its unemployment rate to the same 8.9 percent after adding over 51,000 jobs.
On the end of the spectrum, the District of Columbia, the home of the federal government, suffered the sharpest increase in unemployment over the past year, seeing its jobless rate rise 1.5 points to 11 percent. The city of Washington is heavily dependent on federal employment, which is on the decline due to budget cutbacks.
A number of southern states also saw their unemployment rates rise, even though many of them added jobs. North Carolina, for instance, added nearly 5,000 jobs, but had its unemployment rate rose six-tenths of a point to 10 percent since September 2010 as more people than got jobs entered or re-entered the workforce.
Labor analysts say that when jobs begin to reappear after a recession, discouraged workers begin reentering the labor market to compete for those positions. That can temporarily drive up unemployment in a region or state that is gradually returning people to work.
