The US economy is making a big comeback, with GDP growing and unemployment falling.
Of course, that economy is the sum of 50 state economies, each with its own quirks and unique interactions with the others.
We ranked the states' economies on six measures: recent change in housing prices, nonfarm payroll job growth, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, average weekly wage, and state government surplus and deficit.
While we didn't factor them into the ranking, we also looked at the Fortune 500 companies that have their headquarters in each state and which industries were disproportionately important in each state. This helped us get a little more insight into what makes each state economy tick.
For more details on the sources and methodology, click here.
Mississippi came in as the weakest state economy in our ranking. The state has disproportionately large forestry and logging, furniture manufacturing, and wood-product manufacturing industries.
Mississippi came in dead last on three metrics: It had only 0.02% growth in nonfarm payrolls between December 2013 and December 2014; it had the highest December 2014 unemployment rate among the states at 7.2%; and it had the lowest 2013 GDP per capita of $32,421. It also finished second to last in Q2 2014 average weekly wages, at $705 a week.
49: Maine
Maine has the most forested land of any other state by percentage, and this shows up in the state's economy. Forestry and logging, paper manufacturing, and wood-product manufacturing account for a larger part of Maine's employment than they do in other states.
Maine scored poorly on many of our metrics. Maine saw only a 0.84% increase in jobs between December 2013 and December 2014. Maine's 2013 GDP per capita was also low at $38,518. Maine also had a low Q2 2014 average weekly wage of just $746.
48: New Mexico
Mining is a big part of New Mexico's economy, with mining support activities, oil and gas extraction, and other mining all contributing outsize shares of employment.
New Mexico's housing market saw limited improvement between Q3 2013 and Q3 2014, with housing prices rising just 1.24% year-over-year. The state government's finances were also weaker than most, with a 2013 surplus of just about $608 million, compared with an average of about $4.2 billion among all states. Average weekly wages in Q2 2014 were also lower than those of most other states, at $794 compared with an average of $879.
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