JEC Chairman, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), said this latest document shows "some bright spots" as the data shows more than half of the states have added manufacturing jobs. "We've made progress in the past year, but Congress still has more work to do. In too many states, unemployment remains unacceptably high, and initiatives to create new jobs are stalling in Washington. Programs to retrain our workers who have lost jobs through unfair trade practices have fallen prey to politics."
The report features key economic statistics for each state and the District of Columbia, including: jobs created or lost since the start of the recession, jobs saved or created by the Recovery Act, unemployment rates, per capita earnings, and the condition of the housing sector. It has been updated to include state data released June 17, 2011, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and is the sixth installment of JEC's state economic reports in the 112th Congress. (JEC was established under the Employment Act of 1946 to review economic conditions and analyze the effectiveness of economic policy.) Key findings include:
- In May, the manufacturing sector expanded in 27 states. The biggest gains were in Illinois (+4,400 manufacturing jobs), followed by Ohio (+3,400) and Louisiana (+3,000). Overall, the United States added 158,000 manufacturing jobs in the past twelve months; mostly in the Midwest and South (Michigan, +21,100; Wisconsin, +16,000; Illinois, +12,200; Texas, +10,900; and Oklahoma, +10,100).
- In May, 23 states added private-sector jobs in May. Florida's private sector had the largest expansion (+30,500 jobs), followed by Ohio (+13,800) and Louisiana (+11,100).
- In the past 12 months, more than 30,000 private-sector jobs have been added by each of these 14 states: Texas, California, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Massachusetts, Washington, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Only Maryland, New Mexico and Nevada the District of Columbia lost private-sector jobs in the past year.
- From May 2010 to May 2011, North Dakota (5.7 percent), Texas (2.8 percent) and Nebraska (2.6 percent) had the largest percentage gains in private-sector employment.
- In May, unemployment rates declined--but not by much--in 24 states. The biggest of these small declines? New Mexico (0.7 percentage point), followed by Oklahoma (0.3 percentage point), Florida and Idaho (0.2 percentage point each). In the past 12 months, Texas added 53,700 jobs to the professional and business services sector; activity representing well over 10 percent of all gains (+500,000 jobs) seen in this sector. After the Lone Star State, California and New York came in high on the list of the 20 states (and District of Columbia) which added jobs in the sector.