State-Level Job Loss Since the Start of the Recession

(click to enlarge)

• 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.