According to the 116-page study, Massachusetts is ranked in the lowest of three tiers for job-creation friendliness. The list includes the usual suspects: most of the Northeastern states, the industrial Midwest and, of course, California. Favored states include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
If, as the study concludes, the goal is job creation, then let's have a quick look at the most recent unemployment figures. According to the May 2011 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Northeast is doing best of all of the regions in the country. .How's Massachusetts doing? 7.6%. Not the best, but better than Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, . Of those favored by the Chamber of Commerce, only Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Virginia. And, let's not forget the Virginia is the beneficiary of a lot of federal spending.
The Chamber rates favorably those states which do not have labor laws, such a plant-shutdown notification, overtime provisions, or higher minimum wage laws than those specified by federal law.. The Chamber likes Texas.
Factors contributing to the state’s “good” ranking:According to David Drumm, writing in Rick Perry’s Job Creation Miracle on Jonathan Turley's law blog, Texas has parlayed a high percentage of minimum wage jobs with little or no health insurance coverage into a job-creation myth. The state is also running a $27 billion budget deficit.
- Strong right-to-work protections
- State law prohibiting political subdivisions from enacting higher minimum wage
- Overtime requirements set by federal law
- Strong support for at-will employment doctrine
- No state WARN-type requirements beyond federal law
Mike Masnick at Techdirt notes in Politicians, Innovation & The Paradox Of Job Creation that the entanglement of politics and job creation is far more complex and that, further, job creation quite often comes as the result of some profound earlier job loss. (Telephone operators losing thee jobs even as the telecommunications industry is booming.)
In addition, Ayla Rosen at BostInnovation reports on a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bureau of Business Research study that concludes New York Tops 2011 State Entrepreneurship Index, Mass in at #3.
Politicians and chambers of commerce like to boost job numbers, even if those jobs are low-paying, go-nowhere positions that are vulnerable to the next wave of economic and technical innovation. It makes headlines, but doesn't build a good future.
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