Jobs are everything to an economy. Period.
The following table shows the top-10 states’ job growth rates for the 12-months ending March 2018 using the 2018 revised data from the BLS (which tweaked numbers all the way back to 1990). In addition to the one-year job growth rate, also included are the overall rankings for job growth over two-, five- and 10-years. These ranks (for the intervals of 1-, 2-, 5- and 10-years) were then summed (the Growth Index Score), with the lowest sum ranked the best overall indicating the top-job performance (the Job Growth Index). When using the Job Growth Index Rank for the four time periods, Utah ranked the best with rankings of 1st in the latest 12-months, 3rd in the past 24 months, 2nd in the 5-year rankings and 1st overall in the past 10-years, when comparing total percentage growth rates. Other than Florida, all but one of the top performing states, Florida, was West of the Mississippi.
The next table shows the 10 worst job growth states. Just one of the states in the bottom-10 posted a Growth Index Score greater the median, the District of Columbia.
Attached is a PDF including respective job performance for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
As I always state, jobs are everything. Period. Some states have better job growth than others and some do not. But the economy is all about jobs.
Ted