While economists are discussing the (supposed) next recession, everyone's overlooking the fact that's it's already hit: at least in West Virginia, Alaska, North Dakota and Wyoming.
US employers cut 18,800 jobs in North Dakota, 11,800 in West Virginia and 6,400 in Wyoming last year, even though the economy at large added 2.7 million jobs total.
“Everyone is going to have to tighten their belts,” the owner of a West Virginia construction company tells Bloomberg. “The next couple of years are going to be difficult.”
Yet the contractions have not been widespread and some states are doing very well, such as California, Florida and Texas, where more than 800,000 jobs were created over the last year.
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The regions hardest hit have one thing in common—concentrations of energy companies, which have been hard hit by the plunge in oil prices. [Bloomberg]
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