October 4, 2012
State-Level Job Loss Since the Start of the Recession
December 2007 to August 2012
Keith Hall
Former Senior Research Fellow
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To speak with a scholar or learn more on this topic, visit our contact page.- Since the end of 2009, we’ve averaged about 120,00 jobs per month. Over the past six months, job growth has slowed to 97,000 per month.
- We need at least 130,000 new jobs every month to keep up with population growth and at least 250,000 jobs every month to start to have a labor market recovery.
- More than three years after the end of the recession, job loss remains at a high 4.7 million or 3.4%.
- Seventeen states still have job losses of 5% or more, with Nevada the worst at 12.6%. Three of these states (Nevada, Rhode Island, and California) have unemployment rates above 10%.
- Employment in ten states is above their pre-recession levels. At 16.7%, North Dakota has, by far, the biggest job growth over this period, with Alaska and Texas growing at 3.4% and 3.0%, respectively.
- The working-age population has grown by 9.5 million people in the four-and-a-half years since the start of the recession. This is like adding the entire population of the state of New Jersey.
Former BLS Commissioner Keith Hall Breaks Down the Latest Job Numbers
Keith Hall