Don't Slander Texas

To hear his critics tell, Rick Perry's Texas growth story is the greatest scam since "green jobs". No they don't really. The less said about green jobs the better. Even the New York Times admits that. "Two years after it was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize drafty homes, California has spent only a little over half that sum and has so far created the equivalent of just 538 full-time jobs in the last quarter, according to the State Department of Community Services and Development." That is a disappointing failure by any measure but putting an imbecile ideologue like Van Jones in charge of anything important invites disappointment and failure. Read the whole article. Even the NYT will tell all who can read that "green jobs", all 5 million of them as promised by Obama are a bust.

Enough of Obama and failure let's look to Perry and success. The Political Math Blog examines several of the criticism leveled at Governor Perry and his Texas economy. I'll cite three of them and encourage you to please read that post in its entirety.

• "Texas has an unemployment rate of 8.2%. That's hardly exceptional." That is an apples to oranges comparison. If the same methodology was used as is used to calculate national unemployment Texas would have an unemployment rate of about 2.3%. As the unemployment rate rises people get discouraged and drop out of the labor force. It is possible to have fewer people working but the percentage of unemployed to be less. Since the beginning of the recession 739,000 people have found employment in Texas. Its labor force is growing while the national labor force is shrinking.
• "Sure, Texas has lots of jobs, but they're mostly low-paying/minimum wage jobs" Wrong, the median hourly wage in Texas is $15.04 which puts in 28th place or just about midway on the spectrum of all states.
• "Texas is oil country and the recent energy boom is responsible for the incredible jobs increase." Take the energy sector completely out of the equation and Texas is still growing faster than any other state. This indicates to us that the energy sector is not a single sector saving Texas from the same economic fate as the rest of the states.

The author of the blog has charts and more explanations for the conclusions he reaches. All the data used are cited and derived from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, (BLS) the same source used in national employment statistics reported in the media. It is hoped that armed with these insights however one may feel about Governor Perry one will see the Texas story as real and not buy into popular criticisms rendered by uncritical critics.