Three years into national economic recovery, wide variation exists in jobs recovered

July 31, 2012

A new Rutgers Regional Report, “Employment Recession and Recovery in the 50 States: An Update,” authored by Joseph J. Seneca, university professor and economist at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and Will Irving, research associate, ranks the 50 states by the percentage of the Great Recession’s private-sector job losses that have been recovered as of June 2012.

The number of jobs lost and the number of jobs recovered are measured from each state’s specific employment peak and trough. This provides a precise and appropriate way to measure the size and duration of the recession’s impact on employment in each state and the extent of each state’s recovery from its recession’s losses.

As of June 2012, a full three years into the recovery, only five states – North Dakota, Alaska, Texas, Louisiana, and New York – have regained all their private-sector job losses from the recession, according to Seneca. The reportalso ranks the 50 states by the extent of losses in state and local government employment that have occurred from each state’s peak level of its public sector employment.

The Rutgers Regional Report is published by the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. “Employment Recession and Recovery in the 50 States: An Update” is available at https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/reports/rrr/RRRjuly12.pdf.

Back to Bloustein School news

Recent Posts

EJB Talks: Planning, Policy, Politics, and the Path to Office

Planning, Policy, Politics, and the Path to Office with Assemblywoman Katie Brennan This week on EJB talks, Dean Stuart Shapiro talks to Bloustein alumnus Katie Brennan MCRP '12, now an Assemblywoman in New Jersey's 32nd District. Katie reflects on how her early...

Report Release: R/ECON Forecast Winter 2026

Read Report R/ECON’s economic forecast for New Jersey at the beginning of 2026 is a mixed bag. The state, like the nation, is likely to finish the year with notably stronger GDP growth than forecast earlier in the year. At the same time, the outlook for 2026 continues...