Rick Perry and Texas Job Numbers

[roo_ster]

http://www.politicalmathblog.com/?p=1590

Holy sheep dip, Batman!

Yeah, I read about the job situation and the left's attempt to cast aspersions on it relative to their socialist workers' paradises.

Then comes along a guy who gathers up the commonest aspersions and mines the BLS for data...and the numbers look even MORE freaky when given the gimlet eye.

Do mash the link to see the charts.  Words do not do the numbers justice.

Full disclosure: I don't like Rick Perry for our next president. I have my reasons that aren't worth going into here. However, when I was watching the GOP debate and pro-Perry people started bringing up Rick Perry's job numbers as a cudgel against other candidates, I looked into the BLS data on Texas jobs. Having familiarized myself with the data, I started noticing claims on the Texas jobs data that started popping up that directly contradicted what I was seeing in the data. So I wanted to clear up a couple of these common misconceptions...

In a "normal" employment data set, we can easily look at it and say "Yep, that's where the recession happened. Sucks to be us." But not with Texas. With Texas, we say "Damn. Looks like they've recovered already..."

As you can see, Texas isn't just the fastest growing... it's growing over twice as fast as the second fastest state and three times as fast as the third. Given that Texas is (to borrow a technical term) f***ing huge, this growth is incredible.

People are flocking to Texas in massive numbers. This is speculative, but it *seems* that people are moving to Texas looking for jobs rather than moving to Texas for a job they already have lined up. This would explain why Texas is adding jobs faster than any other state but still has a relatively high unemployment rate...

Since the recession started hourly wages in Texas have increased at a 6th fastest pace in the nation...

...we discover that energy isn't really the biggest part of the Texas economy. Increases in jobs in the energy sector (or closely related to it) account for about 25% of the job increases in the last year. Since the energy sector only makes up 3% of all employment, there is some truth to this claim.

However, take the energy sector completely out of the equation and Texas is still growing faster than any other state...

...Looking at unemployment alone, we would conclude that Wisconsin has a better economy than Texas. But Wisconsin is still 120K short of it's pre-recession numbers. The only reason they look better than Texas is because 32,000 people fled the state.

During that time, 739,000 people fled into Texas. Anyone who takes that data and pretends that this is somehow bad news for Texas is simply not being honest...

[Brad Johnson]

Fact? Facts!? We don't need no steenking FACTS!!

Brad

[Scout26]

So what he's saying is that not having .gov policies that are business un-friendly means more jobs.  Whether the bozo in charge has anything to do with those policies or not?

Shocking!!!

[Balog]

Too bad Texas is so hot and dry.

[RoadKingLarry]

Too bad Texas is so hot and dry.

Well, that and all the damn Texans.   

[zahc]

And no open carry...

[Perd Hapley]

Well, that and all the damn Texans.   

Yeah.

[Hutch]

Maybe some red state governators could, you know, send a delegation or something to Texas, see how this whole jobs thing works.

There was an absolutely devestating rebuttal of a Krugman ( ) editorial comparing Texas education to that of Wisconsin, using standardized test scores.  Turns out, Latino kids in TX did better than Latino kids in WI, black kids in TX did better then black kids in WI, and whites, about the same.  Krugman was left writhing in the crushing jaws of logic.

[RoadKingLarry]

Maybe some red state governators could, you know, send a delegation or something to Texas, see how this whole jobs thing works

You'd think that would be a no brainer. But even their closest neighbor to the north ain't smart enough to take a short drive down I-35 to see why they are doing so well.

[zahc]

At work I keep hearing about how "I can't understand why so many people are coming to Texas, our spending on social welfare is really low, our public services are weak, and our education isn't strong"

[MechAg94]

At work I keep hearing about how "I can't understand why so many people are coming to Texas, our spending on social welfare is really low, our public services are weak, and our education isn't strong"

Yeah, but it seems too many of those people judge "education strength" based on how much money is spent, without even looking at performance.  That is just stupid.

[MechAg94]

Too bad Texas is so hot and dry.

The dry thing is certainly new.  That is unusual down here on the Gulf Coast. 

Unfortunately, if you move down where I am, you won't be able to vote for Ron Paul since he isn't running again. 

[MechAg94]

So what he's saying is that not having .gov policies that are business un-friendly means more jobs.  Whether the bozo in charge has anything to do with those policies or not?

Shocking!!!

It isn't that hard IMO.  Get rid of your personal income tax and elect fairly conservative legislators and governors for 20 years or so.  You might throw in getting your state environmental org to not enact regulations even more restrictive than federal regs. 

[wmenorr67]

You'd think that would be a no brainer. But even their closest neighbor to the north ain't smart enough to take a short drive down I-35 to see why they are doing so well.

Considering that that northern neighbor got sold a bill of goods from the last governor about where all the lottery money was going to go.  Typical bait and switch.

[dm1333]

Well, that and all the damn Texans. 

 

If you are being held hostage in California like I am those Texans don't look so bad.  It's just a matter of perspective!

And no offence, of course, to the 14 other normal people living here in California!

[Perd Hapley]

At work I keep hearing about how "I can't understand why so many people are coming to Texas, our spending on social welfare is really low, our public services are weak, and our education isn't strong"

Did you ask them why they moved there?    Just a guess, but those sound like the typical blue state refugees I've heard so much about.

[birdman]

Did you ask them why they moved there?    Just a guess, but those sound like the typical blue state refugees I've heard so much about.

Probably moved there to get jobs...I wonder if all the Texas immigration from other states is going to negatively change the demographics...you better hope the blue staters don't bring their political pushes with them.

Edit:
Because just like the aliens in independence day, libs are locusts...after destroying one area economically, they move on (new England-->Midwest-->California--> better look out)

[roo_ster]

So what he's saying is that not having .gov policies that are business un-friendly means more jobs.  Whether the bozo in charge has anything to do with those policies or not?

Shocking!!!

Assertion:
"It is better to have an inactive mouth-breathing nitwit as chief executive of a state than an active ivy-league educated near-genius(1)."



(1) Not saying that we have a near-genius as POTUS.