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As the country recovers from two years of pandemic and the economic consequences that it caused, more than a dozen states have begun to reach their pre-covid employment levels-19 to the United States.
Latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show a clearer picture of a regionally driven recovery, with some of the sharpest job gains in the Rocky Mountain states.
A key reason for the strong growth in these areas is the influx of new residents, due to the pandemic and remote work prompted more people to migrate from dense and expensive cities to less expensive regions of the country , said Adam Kamins, economist at Moody’s Analytics in an interview with CNN.
Utah, Idaho and Montana were the three states whose jobs returned faster to pre-pandemic levels and led the nation in job growth: 4.100%, 4.95% and 3.25%, respectively, in March.
Also Arizona and Colorado had recouped their losses, with Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico trailing slightly.
The South has also become a strong region for job recovery following sudden increases in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.
Other states that have achieved a recovery to full employment include Arkansas, Dakota South and Indiana.
But there are other factors such as the main industries, the climate and regulatory environment. For example, in the early stages of the pandemic, declines in the tourism, manufacturing, and food service industries hit states like Georgia, Kentucky, and Hawaii the hardest. .
On the other hand, growth in agriculture, financial services , technology, storage, and transportation helped soften the blow in places like South Dakota, Utah, and Nebraska.
Many coastal cities and states, in particular New York and California, implemented strict restrictions for people and businesses when the pandemic hit.
Other regulatory approaches had mixed success: the federal government’s expansion of unemployment benefits to workers who were previously ineligible.
Some states stated that the benefits prevented people from returning to work and cut them off earlier. However, research shows that states that cut extended benefits prematurely did not see greater employment benefits than those that did not.
In general, the country is only 1.6 million jobs below their pre-pandemic employment levels, after adding others 431,000 jobs in March, when unemployment fell to a low of 3.6%.
The labor market is on track to recover almost eight years faster than after the Great Recession.
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