“Mississippi's economy and, generally, life in Mississippi right now is about as good as it's ever been.” - Haley Barbour
When Haley Barbour says that we've never had it so good it would be could to stop and consider where we are.
Our state unemployment rate has actually increased under the eye of Haley Barbour. When he took office in 2004 Mississippi's unemployment rate was 36th in the nation; today Mississippi weighs in at 49th beaten only by Michigan.
Hurricane Katrina cannot be blamed.
Louisiana was 40th in the nation and now they stand at our old position at 36. Their unemployment rate improved from 6.1 percent to 4.8 percent with each 1/10 of a percentage point representing thousands of jobs. Mississippi's rate worsened to 6 percent placing it as stated previously at 49th.
concerning your last paragraph, you know better than that. As how tight the labor supply is in New Orleans since katrina, its no surprise that Louisiana moved up.
ReplyDeleteThe same labor shortage happened in South Mississippi.
ReplyDeleteAll bordering states improved. We went down.
I cover MS and LA extensively in my job. Trust me, the labor shortgage is much more widespread and acute in LA.
ReplyDeleteAm not disputing your labor stats or comparisions to other states, just the comment about LA.