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 Msg. #  Subject Posted by    Board    Date   
41388 Re: Extensive Analysis of the Jobs Factory that is Texas
   beldin ...you just don't understand it. Some people in Texas are maki... 		ribit   POPE   18 Aug 2011
 7:52 PM
41324 Re: Extensive Analysis of the Jobs Factory that is Texas
   Beldin: Just thought I'd throw a bit of water on Perry's flame. Aft... 		killthecat   POPE   18 Aug 2011
 2:43 AM

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Re: Extensive Analysis of the Jobs Factory that is Texas

By: Beldin in POPE
Thu, 18 Aug 11 12:30 AM
Msg. 41318 of 65535
(This msg. is a reply to 41308 by killthecat)
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Ah, KTC ... I see you're just spewing out of your ass without even looking, yet again. ROTFLMAO!

From http://www.politicalmathblog.com/?p=1590 :

Let's look at the data. Here's a link: Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates

Texas median hourly wage is $15.14... almost exactly in the middle of the pack (28th out of 51 regions). Given that they've seen exceptional job growth (and these other states have not) this does not seem exceptionally low.

But the implication here is that the new jobs in Texas, the jobs that Texas seems to stand alone in creating at such a remarkable pace, are low paying jobs and don't really count.

If this were true, all these new low-paying jobs should be dragging down the wages data, right? But if we look at the wages data since the beginning of the recession (click to enlarge, states are listed alphabetically)

{Embedded Graph}

And it turns out that the opposite is true. Since the recession started hourly wages in Texas have increased at a 6th fastest pace in the nation.

As a side note, the only blue state that has faster growing wages is Hawaii. Just thought I'd get that jab in since so many people have been making snarky "Yeah, I could get a job in Texas is I wanted to flip burgers!" comments at me on Twitter.

...

I'll leave you with my personal favorite chart. I mentioned at the beginning that Texas is seeing high unemployment in a large part because they're growing so damn fast. The problem with this from a charts and graphs perspective is that it leaves worse states off the hook, making them look better than they actually are. Looking at unemployment alone, we would conclude that Wisconsin has a better economy than Texas. But Wisconsin is still 120K short of it's pre-recession numbers. The only reason they look better than Texas is because 32,000 people fled the state.

During that time, 739,000 people fled into Texas. Anyone who takes that data and pretends that this is somehow bad news for Texas is simply not being honest. At the worst, I'd call it a good problem to have.

So, to give something of a better feeling for the economic situation across states, this chart takes the population of the states I selected above and judges the current job situation against the population as it stood at the beginning of the recession.

{Embedded Graph}

Using that metric, Texas would have a very low unemployment rate of 2.3%. But the fact that unemployment in the United States is fluid means that the unemployed flock to a place where there are jobs, which inflates its unemployment rate (at least in the short term). It's not a bad thing for Texas... it just looks bad when dealing with the isolated "unemployment %" statistic.

So, KTC ... because we are taking in so many of your ex-residents who are fleeing blue states, it takes time to assimilate them and for them to find higher paying jobs. But, despite the fact that many of them don't have a job offer in hand when they come to Texas, they still believe they are far better off than what they would be in the hell-hole blue state they came from. And, as you can see, hourly wages in Texas are climbing at the 6th highest rate in the country.

The percentage without health insurance coverage has a lot to do with the high Hispanic population, within which are a large number who are here illegally. Some of the uninsured are also the former residents of blue states where it's apparently so bad that they flee to Texas without first finding a job.

As for the deficit ... we don't have one ... we are cutting spending and using some of our $9 billion rainy day fund to match our expected revenues. In Texas, we require our budget to balance, period. Unfortunately though, even Texas is not immune to the horrific damage that Obama and you Democrats have inflicted on the country over the past 32 months. So, since we live within our means, we are cutting back on our spending like any rational person would.

Cheers!

B.


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