Forbes published an article that named the top states in the United States for the unemployed to find jobs over the next five years. At the very top of the list is Texas with an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent.
1. Texas
According to the article, after Rick Perry became governor of the state in 2000, there were 1.2 million jobs added while the rest of the country as a whole lost 1.1 million jobs during the same time. The article notes that the job gain has been mostly fueled by a 40 percent rise in education and health services in the past 10 years and a 67 percent increase in mining jobs “which includes the thriving oil industry.” Perry joined the presidential candidacy and uses his job increase in Texas as a voting motivation. However, many are not yet fully convinced that Perry can take his Texas jobs creation to a national scale. Forbes reported that the “total employment in Texas is forecasted to expand 2.9 percent annually through 2015 according to research firm Moody’s Analytics. That represents 1.6 million new net jobs for the state over five years.”
The other top states for jobs in the country are as followed:
2. Nevada
Even though the unemployment rate has increased from 4.2 percent five years ago to a current 13.4 percent (the highest in the country), the state is still an attractive area for businesses to move. Forbes attributes this to low business costs in comparison to California, an abundance of land and its proximity to Mexico.
3. Arizona
4. New Mexico – unemployment rate of 6.6 percent and a projected annual job growth rate of 2.6 percent.
5. North Dakota – unemployment rate of 3.5 percent and a projected annual job growth rate of 2.6 percent.
Forbes notes that the majority of these states give their employees the right to decide if they want to join a union or not. All of the states listed except for New Mexico and Oklahoma (#8) give their employees this right. The right is called the right-to-work and there are currently 22 states in the country that follow this.
SOURCE: Forbes
IMAGE: Graph of Texas jobs growth courtesy of Willisms.com
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