State Economic Watch

The February 2026 State Employment Report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics was not much different than the January 2026 report, with the state statistics continuing to reflect a stagnant national labor market. Payrolls were flat in the vast majority of states both on a m/m and y/y basis and unemployment rates were little changed m/m. However, 13 states saw their u-rates rise y/y, with Maryland, Delaware, Florida and Minnesota reporting increases of about 1%. Indiana and Ohio saw their u-rates decline slightly y/y. Arizona was the only state to see meaningful m/m payroll gains in February, while Illinois and Nevada saw losses. Over the year, payrolls were up in California, and Nevada, and down in DC, Maryland, and Iowa. The gains in California were almost entirely driven by significant increases in health and education employment, although the professional and business services category also saw some gains. The situation was similar in Nevada, but increases in leisure and hospita...

Ferrara Candy Company has announced plans to build a 750,000 square foot production facility and associated administrative offices in Orangeburg County, South Carolina. In addition, the Chicago-based company has pledged to hire 1,000 of the state’s residents over the next ten years. For its part, the state has agreed to spend $85 million on site prep, and to provide some tax breaks for the company. The facility is expected to start pumping out Jelly Belly, Nerds, SweeTARTS, and Laffy Taffy in the first quarter of 2029.  

Here’s a link to an interesting Op-Ed by the always equally interesting Alan Ehrenhalt about the revival of Midwestern cities. Ehrenhalt uses recent population statistics to illustrate that cities like Des Moines and Grand Rapids are now growing at a faster rate than that of both other US cities, and of the country as a whole. While Ehrenhalt offers a few possible explanations for this trend, housing affordability appears to be a significant factor. 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s State Coincident Indexes declined notably in January. The three-month diffusion index fell to 48 from a revised 68 in December. This is the lowest reading for the three-month index since the Covid era. The more volatile one-month diffusion index also fell in January to 42 from a revised 84 in December, but it’s still higher than the revised 24 level posted in November. Similar to December, the states with the most significant three-month declines were West Virginia, Delaware, and Montana, while California and Kentucky posted the largest increases. The exhibit below is reproduced from the press release.

The National Taxpayers Union Foundation has come up with a unique and attention-getting way to look at domestic migration data. Its report, Migration in Minutes , calculates state domestic migration rates in terms of relocations per minute. It’s admittedly a lot more fun to read than the gimmicky annual moving company studies or the dry-as-dust Census migration tables, despite the fact that it uses somewhat stale 2022 IRS data. Similar to the Rich States, Poor States report this blog commented on a few days ago, the analysis in the report reflects the Foundation’s views on state tax policy. Not surprisingly the report finds Florida and Texas as the top net domestic migration states and estimates that each state welcomed a new resident about every 4.5 minutes in 2022. California and New York brought up the rear, with California losing a resident about every 2 minutes and New York about every 3 minutes, according to the calculations. The report also breaks down domestic migration by age...

In a new report , the group Common Sense Institute Iowa has estimated that the state’s weakening rate of natural population growth and historic domestic outmigration, together with a recent decline in foreign immigration, will result in a reduction in Iowa’s GDP of almost $330 million this year. Using US Census Bureau data, the report analyzes Iowa’s declining trend of net births and its long term trend of domestic outmigration and concludes that the state’s economy is highly dependent on foreign immigration. However, current federal immigration policy has caused a significant decline in foreign immigration to Iowa over the last year, resulting in an estimated $231 million loss of economic activity in 2025. The study projects the potential impact to the state’s GDP to increase to -$329 million in 2026, -$321 in 2027 and -$299 million in 2028.