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9 years after recession began, some states still unrecovered

In this May 9, 2017 photograph, Kathryn Winfield stands next to the medical skeleton she worked on as she trained to become a certified nursing assistant at the Meridian Community College in Meridian, Miss. The certification and subsequent jobs have doubled the earnings she previously received as a cashier. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
In this May 9, 2017 photograph, Kathryn Winfield stands next to the medical skeleton she worked on as she trained to become a certified nursing assistant at the Meridian Community College in Meridian, Miss. The certification and subsequent jobs have doubled the earnings she previously received as a cashier. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) In this May 9, 2017 photograph, Kathryn Winfield stands next to the medical skeleton she worked on as she trained to become a certified nursing assistant at the Meridian Community College in Meridian, Miss. The certification and subsequent jobs have doubled the earnings she previously received as a cashier. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

By Associated Press 4 min read

MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) – Call them the unrecovered – a handful of states where job markets, nine years later, are still struggling back to where they were before the recession.

That’s true in Mississippi, where job numbers and the overall size of the economy remain below 2008 levels. Unlike states that have long since sprinted ahead, Mississippi is struggling with slow economic growth and slipping population in a place that’s rarely at peak economic health.

Miguel Brown, despite family ties to his hometown near the Alabama border, is working on oil rigs off the shore of Texas, chasing higher wages.

“It’s rough,” said the 49-year-old Brown. “There’s not a whole lot of jobs in Meridian, especially that pay anything.”

Not only Mississippi, but also Alabama, Michigan, New Mexico, and West Virginia are still short of pre-recession job levels by multiple measures. That contrasts with states including Colorado, North Dakota, Texas and Utah, where employment numbers have soared. Nationwide, job numbers surpassed pre-recession peaks in the middle of 2014, about the same time Mississippi was saddled with the nation’s highest unemployment rate.