Five years since the Recession officially ended, USA has managed to recover the nine million jobs that were lost due to the worst recession since the 1930s. Recovery of lost jobs, which finally happened in May 2014, continued in June with addition of another 288,000 jobs in the economy. The number of long-term unemployed individuals, i.e. those out of work for 27 weeks or longer, saw a 6.1% cut to reach a six year low of 32.8%.
However, this figure is, as compared to the historical average of long-term unemployed of 15.1%, is still quite high. Further, the growth in jobs has not occurred throughout the country. 32 states in the country have fewer jobs today as compared to the pre-recession times. This means that these states are yet to recover to the point where they were before the recession began, at least in terms of creation of jobs.
As compared to pre-recession levels, llinois, New Jersey, and Florida are still down by 184,000, 147,000, and 170,000 jobs respectively. Nevada and Arizona have six and five percent fewer jobs today as compared to December 2007 levels. Despite growing signs of recovery, there are signs of the recovery not being spread evenly amongst all states.
North Dakota has not only recovered all the lost jobs but has added another 100,000 jobs as compared to pre-recession levels. The shale oil boom is responsible for this recovery. Texas has added a million jobs while the nation, as a whole, has added 113,000 jobs since December 2007.
The recovery has not been even due to the slow pace of job growth in manufacturing and construction. While housing has bottomed out, the pace of recovery has been very slow. The sector is barely half of what it was in the mid 2000s, which has slowed recovery for states like Nevada that lost half its construction workforce due to the recession.
The manufacturing sector too is showing signs of revival, albeit slowly. While the jobs market is recovering and economy is improving as a whole, it is evident that there are some states that are doing far better than the rest of the country.
Source: www.bloomberg.com