Much Of America Still Hasn't Recovered From The Recession

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/only-2-percent-of-counties-have-fully-recovered-2015-1


The fastest-recovering counties tend to have large energy or agriculture industries.

Last year, national employment surpassed prerecession levels for the first time, and GDP growth reached an 11-year high. But that doesn't mean the economy is totally back on track – home prices haven't fully recovered, and the unemployment rate is still above prerecession levels.
So how does that all play out on the ground? According to the National Association of Counties, "county economies are where Americans feel the national economy." And, they've found, at the county level only 2.1% of counties have fully recovered from the recession.

That's according to a new NACo study, which compares each county based on four indicators: job growth, unemployment rates, GDP output, and median home prices.

(Bear in mind, it's tough to compare data at the county level because of the disparities in counties' size and makeup, so these estimates are very approximate.)



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/only-2-percent-of-counties-have-fully-recovered-2015-1#ixzz3OhSq0ZsF



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/only-2-percent-of-counties-have-fully-recovered-2015-1#ixzz3OhSiklG0

[hobbit709]

1. I love their Note: the four indicators analyzed are jobs, unemployment rates, economic output (GDP)

AND MEDIAN HOME PRICES. Here in Austin those home prices have skyrocketed along with rents-but wages are below living level for a large percentage of workers here.

[merrily]

2. Unemployment does not tell the whole story, either. Far from it.

A relative of mine and his wife went from losing the one full time job that formerly supported the family to husband and wife working a total of four jobs to make only a tiny bit more than the one job used to pay. So, four times the employment and even a very modest increase in real wages.

Both jobs that my relative's wife now performs are paid "under the table," because it was either that or lose their under the water home. So, if she loses one or both of those, it will not even show up in unemployment statistics for that reason, either.


The investor class is doing great, though, so my relatives can pound sand. Luckily, he somehow managed to keep his expensive health insurance during a year of unemployment, so the stroke he had (from all the economic stress, IMO) was covered--a little. (The job loss was post-Obama, but had nothing whatever to do with Obama. The stroke was before Obamacare would have covered him.)