Monday, February 16, 2009

Ohio = Bad Place to Find a Job

I love how websites use statistics from, say, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and twist them for their own yellow journalistic needs. This week, we have: 15 worst states to find a job in!

Significant findings:
  1. Michigan -- 10.6% unemployment
  2. Rhode Island -- 10.0%
  3. SC -- 9.5%
  4. CA -- 9.3%
  5. NV -- 9.1%
  6. OR -- 9.0%
  7. DC -- 8.8%
  8. NC -- 8.7%
  9. FL -- 8.1%
  10. GA -- 8.1%
  11. MS -- 8.0%
  12. TN -- 7.9%
  13. KY -- 7.8%
  14. OH -- 7.8%
  15. IL -- 7.6%

And, if you don't see your home state on there, there's always the flip side: 22 best states to find a job in (why 22? they don't offer an explanation). Top of that list? Wyoming, also Montana, the Dakotas, Kansas, and Oklahome. My guess is that people out there a) moved there for a job (Montana is not exactly a hotspot for young grads), and b) are in "lifestyle jobs" like "farmer" or "rancher," etc. Which is why the numbers are so low for unemployment.

So, MSNBC, what are the underemployment rates?

Significate finding: Indiana not on either list, with an unemployment rate (assumedly) of between 6.4 and 7.6%.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, Ohio is average.

The national unemployment rate is 7.6%. Ohio's is 7.8%. That's a difference of .2% -- not a statisically significant difference, it's well within the bounds of standard deviation.

That said, the unemployment rate doesn't give the whole picture. For more on that, see this article:

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/01/09/2293562-meltdown-101-unemployment-by-the-numbers

Barry Floore said...

Right. That's why I mentioned that these numbers were just filling someone's yellow journalistic needs. They wanted a story where none existed.