Employment Ratio Tells the Truth on Jobs Data

 The Dems like to compare the raw number of jobs or GDP growth in Maine to other states' since the recession.  Here's what nonpartisan Maine Department of Labor chief economist Glenn Mills has to say about that:

• “Every news release that puts us at the bottom for GDP growth or any of the other things is no surprise,” Mills said. . . . Mills said the state was relatively insulated to the impact of the financial crisis, compared with places like New York City where finance jobs dried up or Arizona and Nevada where the real estate market rapidly collapsed. “We had many industries that were hit hard, but our economic structure is not such that we’re heavily weighted to any of the really bad industries that went down so much,” Mills said, noting that resurgence in industries like car manufacturing has also led areas of the country to bounce back more quickly than Maine.

 
See also John Haskell, editor of Pinetreeconomics at the Bangor Daily News, who is "by no means a supporter of LePage nor the Maine GOP," disagreeing with us on "minimum wage, welfare, and bonds," ripping into the Dems' argument (screenshot available on request):

• "And the problem I have with some of the Dem platform is that arguments lack critical thought. For instance, while I disagree with LePage on his economic policies, the Dem criticisms that Maine lags in job creation is specious. Maine's economic/job growth is constrained somewhat by demographics, and Maine did not fall off the cliff jobs wise following the 2008 recession like some other states did. Steeper dive, steeper climb--hence states like Nevada, which saw its labor market pummeled when the housing market collapsed have had higher job growth rates over the past few years . . . but guess which state is closer to its pre-recession job levels,Maine or Nevada"

So what does the state DOL's chief economist say is a better measure of economic growth?  It's his preferred method for comparing Maine to other states.

• "Mills said that he considers [the employment-to-population ratio] alongside other measures, but prefers using it to compare Maine to other states and to gauge the overall health of the economy, particularly as the state’s demographic trends have long indicated this would be a period of slow growth in other regards. 

Investing.com had a headline on point last week as well, calling the employment-to-population ratio "The One Job Metric You Need to Watch."

• "Economists eye the employment-to-population ratio to gauge the nation's ability to maintain job growth and further quantify the strength of the recovery."

And where does Maine rank in terms of its employment-to-population growth since the recession?  Among the top three states in the nation, according to the New York Times. 
 
And if you don't like the employment-to-population ratio, there's always the unemployment rate, which has dropped from 8.0% to 5.5% in LePage's first term, well below the national average.