Gallup Index for worst and best states job market

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July 21, 2010

Energy, Federal Government States Provide Best Job Markets

The finance states of the Northeast and housing states of the West have the worst job markets

by Dennis Jacobe, Chief Economist

PRINCETON, NJ -- More than half of the 10 best job markets in 2010 are energy- and commodity-producing states, indicating how valuable these natural resource-based industries are to the U.S. economy at this time.

Gallup's Job Creation Index shows that the energy-producing states of North Dakota, Louisiana, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Texas are in the top 10 state job markets for the first half of 2010, as they were in 2008 and 2009. They are joined by Alaska, another energy state; the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, all of which benefit from the presence of federal government hiring; several farm states -- Arkansas, Iowa, and South Dakota -- that benefit from ethanol and a strong commodities market; and Pennsylvania -- possibly reflecting the steady improvement in manufacturing.

Despite an overall improvement in job market conditions, 5 states in the bottom 10 during the first half of 2010 were also on the list in 2008 and 2009: Nevada, Connecticut, Rhode Island, California, and Michigan. Additional financial-crisis states in the Northeast, including New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, New York, and New Hampshire, are some of the worst job markets. Other Western states in the bottom 10 include Idaho and Wyoming. Although Michigan's job market has improved substantially from 2009, it remains in the 2010 bottom 10.

These results are based on aggregated data from nearly 100,000 interviews with employed adults during the first half of 2010, conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking. Gallup asks those who are employed whether their companies are hiring workers and expanding the size of their labor forces, not changing the size of their workforces, or laying off workers and reducing their workforces. The figures reported here represent the net difference between the percentage reporting an expansion and the percentage reporting a reduction in their workforces.

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Edited July 22, 2010 by Cleocatra

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Federal Jobs should not count as "jobs"

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