32 states trail US as a whole in job recovery
The Associated Press
Five years after the Great Recession officially ended, most
states still haven't regained all the jobs they lost, even though the
nation as a whole has.
In May, the overall economy finally
recovered all 9 million jobs that vanished in the worst downturn since
the 1930s. Another month of solid hiring is expected in the U.S. jobs
report for June that will be released Thursday. Read More Optimism surrounds June jobs report
Yet 32 states still have fewer jobs than when the recession began in December 2007—evidence of the unevenness and persistently slow pace of the recovery.
Ben Torres | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Job seekers wait in line to enter a job fair hosted by JobExpo.com in Dallas.
Even though economists declared the recession over in June
2009, Illinois is still down 184,000 jobs from pre-recession levels.
New Jersey is down 147,000. Both states were hurt by layoffs at
factories.
Florida is down 170,000 in the aftermath of its real estate
market collapse.
The sluggish job market could weigh on voters in
some key states when they go to the polls this fall.
A Quinnipiac
University poll out Wednesday found that voters named the economy by far
the biggest problem facing the United States.
The states where hiring lags the most tend to be
those that were hit most painfully by the recession: They lost so many
jobs that they've struggled to replace them all.
Nevada, which suffered a spectacular real estate bust and four years of double-digit unemployment, has
fared worst. It has 6 percent fewer jobs than it did in December 2007.
Arizona, also slammed by the housing collapse, is 5 percent short.
By contrast, an energy boom has lifted several states to the top of job creation rankings.
"North Dakota is the No. 1 example," says Dan
White, senior economist at Moody's Analytics. "It's like its own little
gold rush."
North Dakota has added 100,000 jobs since December 2007—a
stunning 28 percent increase, by far the nation's highest. The state
has benefited from technology that allows energy companies to extract
oil from shale, sedimentary rock formed by the compression of clay and
silt.
Not surprisingly, the capital of North Dakota, Bismarck,
has the lowest unemployment rate of any American city: 2.2 percent as of
May.
Mark and Valerie Luna and their eight children had
been struggling in Arizona when they heard on television about North
Dakota's prosperity and decided to move there in 2010.
"It was becoming like the Great Depression in
Arizona," Valerie Luna said. "We were tired of seeing our friends lose
their houses and their businesses."
