Four Red States Recover All Pre-Recession Jobs As Many Blue States Are Still ‘Lagging Behind’
Four states — Texas, Arizona, Idaho, and Utah — have seen full recovery in their labor markets following COVID-19 and the lockdown-induced recession.
“Texas and Arizona have joined two other states in recovering all the jobs they lost at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading a trend that is expected to include another dozen states by the middle of this year,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. “The states, which also include Utah and Idaho, have benefited from demographic shifts before and during the pandemic — experiencing outsize payroll growth in retail, warehousing, technology and transportation industries.”
The outlet added that the states’ labor markets have been aided by inbound workers and companies launching operations in the regions. “The states — all Republican controlled — also have had relatively relaxed Covid-19 restrictions during the pandemic, which economists say softened the blow on their economies.”
“Those four states have experienced persistently strong population growth, which really wasn’t dented by the pandemic,” Moody’s Analytics director of regional economics Adam Kamins explained. “More and more people keep coming from expensive coastal cities to places like Dallas and Phoenix, which have a relatively lower cost of living and higher quality of life.” – READ MORE
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