The Center Square
With a June jobless rate of 9.7% and a five-year annualized employment growth rate of negative 2.3%, the Louisiana economy finished worst in a new ranking by the website 24/7 Wall St.
The state’s annualized gross domestic product growth through the first quarter of this year stood at 0.2%, the financial news website reported, while its poverty rate came in at 18.7%.
In ranking the health of state economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, 24/7 Wall St. looked at four metrics: the five-year GDP growth, employment statistics, the jobless rate and the poverty rate. The data originate from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics and Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The states that took the biggest hits economically were dependent on industries most affected by the pandemic, such as tourism and extraction of petroleum, according to 24/7 Wall St.