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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

A Strong Economy?

Posted by: Hammer / 9:05 AM

Gov. T-Paw's latest email ("A Strong Economy, A Vibrant State") assert this:

Not only are the state's coffers full, we have been creating new jobs by the thousands.

Let's look at the Pawlenty job creation record.

YearYear end private employmentAnnual change
1990>1,802,000
19911,814,10012,100
19921,875,10061,000
19931,932,30057,200
19941,988,70056,400
19952,041,70053,000
19962,085,60043,900
19972,158,70073,100
19982,208,80050,100
19992,268,70059,900
20002,307,30038,600
20012,268,204-39,096
20022,259,207-8,997
20032,257,154-2,053
20042,298,02040,866
20052,317,63619,616

The Pawlenty record on private employment is poor. Two years of job losses, one year of solid job growth (not as good as any year during the Clinton economic miracle, but good for a Republican), and one year of tepid job growth. It's remarkable that Pawlenty would want to draw attention to such a poor performance.

8 Comments:

I'm not a mathematician, but doesn't that equate to 35% job growth overall? If my math is correct that doesn't sound too bad.

Where can I find the national numbers to compare too? Or better yet, what are the numbers for a like state, say Iowa or Michigan?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:57 PM  

My bad for not including the link.
The best private sector job growth rate under Pawlenty was in 2004, where the private work force grew by 1.81%.

By Blogger Hammer, at 1:11 PM  

More from here. From 2000-2004, Minnesota's average unemployment rate was about a full percentage point better than the national rate. In 2000 and 2004, Minnesota's average unemployment rate was .9% better than the U.S. average. In 2002 the gap peaked at 1.3%: Minnesota's unemployment rate was 4.5% while the U.S. rate was 5.8%.

At the end of 2005, that gap started to narrow. In December, the gap was .7%. In January, it fell to .5%. While Minnesota's job market has been (and still is) better than the national average, that advantage has been eroding recently.

By Blogger Hammer, at 1:17 PM  

But by looking at unemployment rate and comparing it to job creation, you are comparing apples to oranges.

Jobs are jobs be they public or private.

Some of the unemployed will always be unemployed regardless of what new job creation there was or wasn't.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:27 PM  

I'm not understanding what you are getting at. You had asked about job growth. Minnesota's private workforce has grown 2.6% since December, 2002. That's not an annual figure, that's total. And that's not particularly good.

You also asked about national comparisons. I gave you the unemployment figures, which are the easiest to come by. More data is here. Nationally, the total number of jobs has grown 4.6% since December, 2002. Again, not a great number, but far better than Minnesota has done.

Under Pawlenty, job creation has not been good by state historical standads and has not been good compared to national trends.

By Blogger Hammer, at 1:56 PM  

I think I see the problem. Your table lists statistics from 1990- and forward. Not being from MN, and not following MN politics any closer than now realizing that Pawlenty was not governor all those years, now I see what you are getting at. When was Pawlenty elected?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:39 AM  

Pawlenty was elected in 2002. I should've made that clear. He followed Jesse Ventura.

By Blogger Hammer, at 7:59 AM  

Clinton economic miracle? Everybody knows that was the Arne Carlson economic miracle.

By Blogger Joey de Vivre, at 2:05 PM  

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