An economic analysis group which calls itself IHS Global Insight predicts 16 states will have recovered economically to pre-recession levels by the end of next year and that all but eight of the 50 states will be there by the end of 2015. Kansas is among those slated to be back to “normal” in 2015, just two years away.
The group’s economist said most of the states recovering fastest are those that escaped the housing bubble crisis and/or have oil or natural gas deposits that boost their economies.
Four states, Alaska, Texas, Louisiana and North Dakota — all energy-rich — are already back above 2007 levels. Some of the others doing well are Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Nebraska. It is good news that Kansas has thriving neighbors on three of its four borders — maybe some of their returning prosperity will rub off.
The meat of this message is that the recovery pace is quickening. The jobless percentage has dropped to 7.8 percent and will continue to fall.
But this rising economic water won’t lift all ships to the same level.
A different set of analysts issued papers over the last few weeks that show the earning gap between those who reach different education levels continues to widen.
Last December, 301,000 of job-seekers over 25 with some college or technical school credits or with a college degree found jobs, while 201,000 job-seekers with high school degrees or less remained unemployed.
Those with college degrees earned substantially more than those without and those with advanced degrees were at the top of the earning list.
Once again, the facts show a one-for-one correlation between eduction and income.
An interesting, but disturbing, statistic also emerged: dropouts were more successful in finding work than were high school graduates with no further education. Those numbers mean that our economy is creating a lot of jobs at the bottom. Dead-end jobs that leave workers dependent on food stamps and other welfare who must live in substandard or subsidized housing.
To recite these readily available, unsurprising facts is not to argue that everyone should be a doctor, lawyer or college professor. Folks have differing abilities as well as different assets. Those who can achieve a master’s degree or better in a growing field should do so for their own sake as well as for the benefit of society. We live in a competitive world and our position in it depends on the abilities and ambitions of our people.
But there are other pathways to good incomes and fulfilling lives. Those who develop skills that others will pay to use do well. Those skilled workers can do very well if they start businesses, hire other skilled workers and develop managerial abilities. That’s how some of our nation’s most successful firms began. It’s also how many profitable small businesses in communities of every size are born and grow.
Some of those successes are modest but can be very fulfilling. But almost every one of them started with training. Perhaps as an apprentice; perhaps in a technical school; perhaps, in this knowledge age, through online learning.
The keys are determination, ambition and application — or to put it in street talk, want-to and hard work.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
