AT MIDYEAR, TEXAS had the third-most-robust economy in the nation. That's according to . . .
. . . Portfolio magazine. (See the article here and the rankings here.)
Portfolio's rankings were based primarily on employment data. Texas lost 11,100 private-sector jobs (-0.1%) over the past year, Portfolio says -- far less than most other states. Over the past five years, however, private-sector employment in Texas has increased 474,400, the most in the nation.
Portfolio ranked Texas first in the nation in 2007 and 2008, but our state fell to third last year and remains there again this year.
The District of Columbia ranks fifth, up sharply from thirtieth in 2007. Portfolio offers no explanation for the jump. Common sense says today's explosive growth in the size of federal government under President Obama has created a demand for private-sector jobs to serve all the new bureaucrats.
As for the Houston Chronicle's favorite two states:
New York is in eighth place, its best showing in years. (Five years ago it was in fortieth place.) Portfolio says the northeast is holding up better than most other regions of the nation.
California ranks fiftieth of fifty-one. Says Portfolio, "The employment bases of [the] bottom states have eroded at an alarming rate. California's loss of 950,300 private-sector jobs since 2005 is the equivalent of losing 520 jobs every day for five years.
Every day in every way, the Chronicle editorial board wants Texas to be more like California.
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