Unemployment In A Covid-19 World; Wealthy Flee NYC -- August 22, 2020

From Unbiased America:

DIFFERING SHUTDOWN STRATEGIES HAVE RESULTED IN A HUGE DISPARITY IN UNEMPLOYMENT RATES AMONG THE STATES by Kevin Ryan

Never before has there been such a huge disparity in unemployment rates among the states. As of last month, the state with the highest unemployment rate, Massachusetts (16.1%), had a rate three-and-a-half times higher than the lowest state, Utah (4.5%).

And Massachusetts isn’t an aberration. Eighteen states have unemployment rates in double digits.

Nine states, meanwhile, are 6.9% or lower!

If this continues, there is a real danger of population migration out of the states that are still restrictive in their labor policies, especially if the unemployment becomes chronic rather than temporary.

New York, for example, is starting to find that some residents who fled are not coming back. [And generally, it is those who can afford it, i.e., the high-income taxpayers, who are moving.] 

Related: escape from New York City -- wealthy residents flee in droves as city degenerates into a hellhole.

Meanwhile, other states have much better employment situations, either because they never resorted to mass shutdowns and still have relatively low unemployment rates, or have already opened back up most of their economy with fewer restrictions. [Actually, unemployment rates probably correlate better to type of industries in that state: Florida is doing very badly but it's a travel and leisure destination. Minnesota, on the other hand is doing very well, but it had one of the most restrictive lock down policies and remains locked down.]

Going forward, states that continue to impose the harshest restrictions risk losing business and population to those that have returned to a competitive environment. Stay tuned…