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Conservative Governors Leading the Way for Lower Unemployment Rates, Job Growth
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Conservative Governors Leading the Way for Lower Unemployment Rates, Job Growth

Conservative governors and their policies are strongly leading the way for job growth while lowering the unemployment rate, according to two recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

Policies from conservative governors are creating more private-sector jobs while lowering unemployment rates (compared to Democrat-led ones), according to recent reports by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As background information, 29 states are currently being led by Republican governors, while 21 are being led by Democrats.

After doing some number crunching on each state’s unemployment rate report from last month, a few details really stood out. For starters, 11 out of the 15 states currently with the lowest unemployment rate are being led by Republican governors.

Republican-led South Dakota, Nebraska, Utah and North Dakota all can boast that they are in the top four for lowest unemployment rates in the country. These states under Republican leadership for much of the recent past have been able to brag about great job numbers for many years.

Chart showing the unemployment rates in all 50 states. Credit: Benji Backer Chart showing the unemployment rates in all 50 states. Credit: Benji Backer

That’s why a state like Wisconsin, under Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s leadership since 2010, is an even bigger story.

Wisconsin is currently just 25th in the nation for the lowest unemployment rate, but that doesn’t paint the full picture of how conservative policies are helping a state like his.

Since Gov. Walker took office, the unemployment rate in Wisconsin has dropped from 7.8 percent (behind Democrat Gov. Jim Doyle’s policies) to 5.8 percent.

There are many similar stories around the country, such as Florida, where the unemployment rate has dropped from 10.9 percent to 6.2 percent since Republican Gov. Rick Scott took over.

Perhaps the most interesting job statistic comes from a recent report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Earlier this month, they released private sector job numbers of each state for the first seven months of 2014.

Private sector jobs added for every 100 citizens in all 50 states. Photo Credit: Benji Backer Private sector jobs added for every 100 citizens in all 50 states. Photo Credit: Benji Backer

The statistics were slightly misleading at first look because of each state’s differing population, so I began to number crunch once again. I took each state’s private sector job numbers in the first seven months of 2014 and divided it by each state’s overall population to get a more accurate, telling number of how many private-sector jobs are being created in each state.

Similar to the unemployment rate statistics, Republican-led states really stood out for being high private-sector job creators.

In fact, the four highest private-sector job creating states per 100 people are states currently led by Republican governors. North Dakota (1.8 percent), Texas (0.98 percent), Utah (0.97 percent), and Nevada (0.91 percent) are the only states that can boast numbers higher than 0.90 percent, something no Democratic governor can boast about their own state.

Credit: Bureau of Labor and Statistics Private sector jobs created from January to June 2014 in all 50 states. Credit: Bureau of Labor and Statistics

Despite only carrying 21 states with governors, Democrats have six out of the lowest 10 private-sector job creating states in the country, collectively creating less than 1 private sector job per 1,000 people.

Illinois, led by Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, was joined by Alaska (led by Republican Sean Parnell) as one of only two states of which lost private-sector jobs over the first seven months of this year. In total, Illinois lost 5,900 jobs in the past seven months, which was the worst in the nation.

If these two statistics (broken down) and our overall national job crisis led by Barack Obama isn’t enough to sway citizens on Election Day who are looking for jobs (as well as job-creators), nothing will. This nation has seen what liberal policies are doing to job prospects and our overall national economy and it isn’t appealing.

Email Benji Backer: benji@benjibacker.com

Feature Image: Getty Images

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