As the election year rhetoric heats up, you’re likely to hear incumbents cite Mississippi’s unemployment rate as proof that the state is headed in the right direction economically.
That’s sound strategy: While Mississippians may have a variety of opinions on issues such as taxes or education or lightning-rod issues such as LGBT vs. religious freedom or abortion, the economy is something all can agree on as a major indicator of where we are headed.
For incumbents, therefore, the state’s unemployment rate – currently at 4.8 percent – suggests our economy is strong. While that rate still lags behind the national average of 3.9 percent, more Mississippians are working than ever before.
That’s good news, certainly, but voters are wise not to put too much into the unemployment rate. It’s only one indicator of an economy’s health.
In other respects, Mississippi’s economy should be cause for real concern.
Data from Business Insider paints a far less optimistic portrait of our economy.
Using six measures of labor-market and general economic health for all the states and the District of Columbia – unemployment rate, job growth, per-capita GDP, GDP growth, average weekly wages, and wage growth – Business Insider came up with an overall score for each state’s economy.
Mississippi ranked 51 – dead last.
Here’s what Business Insider said about Mississippi’s economy.
Mississippi’s per capita GDP of $38,313, its average weekly earnings of $697, and its 2.2 percent decline in wages were all the lowest among the 50 states and DC. These numbers were based on 2018 figures. There is little reason to doubt much has changed in the past few months.
What can be reasonably gleaned from these numbers?
Mississippians are working, but their income is low and getting lower.
Are you hearing any candidates talk about this on the campaign trail?
Probably not, even though in the latest Millsaps-Chism Strategies strategy poll, 72 percent of likely voters said they favored raising the minimum wage to at least $10 per hour.
Raising the state’s minimum wage is something of an mischaracterization. Mississippi is one of a handful of states which never established its own minimum wage. Instead, the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 per hour, is used as the standard.
Critics of raising the minimum wage for the first time in 10 years, say the move would force businesses to lay off workers or reduce their hours or cause inflation as employers pass along the increase in labor costs to customers.
Research is mixed on whether that’s true, but as evidence that a wage floor doesn’t stagnate the economy too much, we can point to the steady growth of GDP since the first federal minimum wage was implemented in the 1930s.
When wages are raised for the lowest paid workers, virtually all of the extra money in their paychecks goes back into the economy. These are paycheck-to-paycheck employees, after all. They’re not going to sock away that money in stocks or savings plans. They are going to use that money for goods and services they could not previously afford.
And in Mississippi, which has the highest percentage of minimum-wage workers in the nation, the impact of that infusion of earnings could move the economy in immediate, tangible ways that few other incentives offer.
It’s an issue we should be asking candidates this summer.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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