Where are American Jobs Growing?

Interesting article at NRO by Greg Kaza comparing the job growth rates between the Red and Blue states. He identifies 18 Blue states that voted for Gore and Kerry in the last two presidential elections, and compares them the to 29 Red states that voted for Bush. The results are perhaps not surprising.

"Total Blue-state employment growth has been only 3.3 percent during the current expansion, which began in November 2001, compared with the U.S. rate of 5.5 percent. Meanwhile, total Red-state employment growth has been 7.5 percent, more than double that of the Blue states."

Job growth has trailed the US average in 13 of the 18 of the Blue states, with only Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Delaware and Maryland exceeding the US average, with the Western states exceeding the average rate by significant margins. High tax liberal bastion states Michigan and Massachussets were the only two states to actually LOSE jobs.

Meanwhile, in the Red states, 18 of the 29 have performed better than the US average, and there is also another interesting tidbit in the analysis. The seven states without a state income tax are all on the list, with high growth Nevada leading the list. So in most of the states that let you keep more of your own money, the labor markets are doing just great.

Kaza notes that trend is not a new one, just not reported on very frequently (if at all). Perhaps the real story here is that MSM outlets are once again ignoring the facts on the ground because it doesn't meet the proper narrative (the economy is doing poorly) that their intellectual blinders force them to keep repeating.

Debt Clock

The Skeptical One's Debt clock has been recalibrated in response to recently released economic numbers. It's again running backwards, meaning that the economy is now growing faster than the government debt again. The Debt to GDP ratio is 64.624+% and the Public Debt (bonds actually owned by private individuals and foreign governments, rather than another US government agency, i.e., Social Security) is at 36.202+%.

He also has some really good analysis into the recent jobs/unemployment report here.
In short, many of the jobs that are disappearing aren't such terribly great jobs in the first place, and are being replaced by even higher paying jobs.

Job Numbers

The Skeptical One looks here at the recent employment figures to try to determine where the latest meme of economic disaster will be spun from, and finds the news so overwhelmingly positive that we're not sure - but there still is a Republican in the White House, so it's just GOT to bad, somehow, someway.

His analysis is that not only are more people employed, but all those good manufacturing and construciton jobs that are disappearing are being replaced by HIGHER paying jobs in IT, wholesale trade and business services.

Ouch, that must hurt the NY Times staff's brains.

BTW, no posting over the holiday due to vacation and a much needed break. Got some excellent comments while I was away, however. Thanks!