Economic Snapshot for March 4, 2009

Recovery package eases but does not eliminate states’ job woes

by Kai Filion

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act recently approved by Congress and signed by the president is a great first step toward economic recovery, but it is not a panacea for our economic problems. Even with the jobs created by this plan, many states will still suffer.

This interactive map shows projected job loss and creation by the end of 2010 as a percentage of total jobs in each state.  Although a few states are expected to show some job growth, a total of 39 states—representing more than 80% of the population—will have fewer jobs at the end of 2010 than before the recession began. The hardest hit (Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and Rhode Island) will each have lost more than 5% of their jobs. California alone is expected to lose over 700,000 jobs, while New York, Florida, and Michigan combined will shed more than 1.1 million jobs. Although the recovery plan will help to ease this pain, there is still work to be done.

[Download printable PDF version of this map] 

Note:
1. Expected jobs in 2010 are calculated by adding the White House estimates of jobs created by the stimulus to Mark Zandi’s estimates of employment in the fourth quarter of 2010. This result is then compared to pre-recession employment levels (fourth quarter of 2007) to calculate the percentage of jobs lost or created.