Just a couple of days after I made that map about unemployment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their numbers for January. With new numbers, I decided to reassess my previous method of categorizing states by looking more at the number of people employed rather than the unemployment rate. The reason for this is a decline in the unemployment doesn't necessary mean that more people have jobs, people may given up looking for jobs for various unrelated reasons. So here's the new map:
The map still shows 26 states plus DC recovering. Some of the most important changes are that California, Florida, and Texas do not appear to be getting worse. I'm reluctant to say that they are fully recovering though until February numbers are available.
Kentucky is an oddity as it's employment numbers are improving, but the number of unemployed is growing at a faster rate.
Wyoming is the opposite situation, its employment numbers are declining, but the number of unemployed is declining at a faster rate.
Nevada is also problem in that it's unemployment rate greatly improved in January, but the number of people employed declined.
Employment numbers in Colorado are getting worse, but I couldn't really call it a double-dip recession because the employment numbers never really showed much improvement in the first place.
In any case, the Midwest and the Northwest are still doing incredibly well, but the recovery appears to be losing steam in the Rockies and the Southeast.
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