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A 3-Letter Word: J-O-B-S

Our region’s employment boom continues.

The American Southwest’s jobs gusher is getting embarrassing. Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California each saw employment grow between April and May, with an average increase of 0.30 percent.

The local J-O-B-S powerhouse remains Utah. The performance of its mighty employment machine has ticked upward for six months in a row. Oklahoma can’t say the same, but at 0.40 percent, its May result was impressive enough.

The Beehive State’s unemployment rate was 2.3 percent, well below the national mark and tied for 7th among the states. Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico beat the U.S. figure, too. (Sadly, Nevada, once again, came in at a rock-bottom 5.4 percent. The good news for the Silver State: Since February, its job-growth rate has accelerated.)

The American Southwest has the best economy in the nation. That’s something to be enormously proud of — it’s also a reason to support the pro-economic development researchers working to maintain our region’s enviable status.

By D. Dowd Muska

Dowd brings nearly 30 years of research and writing experience to the Institute. A veteran of several think tanks, he is an expert on government at the municipal, county, state, and federal levels.

Raised on an apple orchard in the Connecticut River Valley, D. Dowd Muska is a researcher, writer, editor, and commentator. His focus is the nexus of fiscal policy, economic development, and technology.

Mr. Muska is the author of numerous policy studies, and his writing has appeared in newspapers throughout the nation, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, The Detroit News, the Orlando Sentinel, the Cape Cod Times, the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Hartford Courant, the Waco Tribune-Herald, the Albuquerque Journal, the New Haven Register, and The Oklahoman. A graduate of The George Washington University, he lives in the Albuquerque metro area, but has started (very) early planning for a relocation to the Sierra Blanca in Lincoln County, New Mexico. He recently launched the Substack platform No Dowd About It.

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