With Rick Perry now officially running for President, the "Texas Miracle" has been all over the news. The Texas Miracle refers to the supposedly wonderful economy in Texas that doesn't have the unemployment issues found in the rest of the country, all thanks to Rick Perry and conservative politics. The statistic going around is that in the past 2 years, 38% of all new jobs created in the U.S. were in Texas.
So let's look at the unemployment rates per state and see how awesome we are! Link. Holy crap... Texas is #26 at 8.2%... half of the states are doing better than us. And we're losing to some of the most liberal ones like New York, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Vermont even has single-payer health care and Ben & Jerry, but their unemployment rate is 5.5%! Why is nobody talking about the Vermont Miracle? We're just in the middle of the pack. And especially when you consider that we have the highest percentage of minimum wage jobs in the nation, it looks like Texas isn't such a great state for employment after all.
So how can it be true that 38% of all new American jobs in the past 2 years were in Texas?. It is true, but it's clearly not because our employment rate is better. So it must reflect a larger population and faster rate in its growth. The statistic is meant to make you think it represents something it doesn't. But I'm sure it's going to win Perry a lot of votes anyway.
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