Rick Perry’s Atrocious Jobs Record

By Yashwanth Manjunath

As Alan already pointed out, the idea of Rick Perry’s “Texas Miracle” is ridiculous. Job growth in Texas under Perry has come at the expense of the total evisceration of the state’s social programs. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, and for Perry’s presidential ambitions, Texas’s sacrifice of its social compact has completely failed to adequately create jobs.

Texas ranks dead last in the country in total job creation, when accounting for labor force growth, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (see chart). While it is true that more than 126,000 net jobs were created in Texas during the last two-and-a-half years, the labor force expanded by more than 437,000, which means that overall unemployment has actually increased dramatically during the so-called “Texas Miracle.” In fact, not only has unemployment increased in Texas, the state has had the worst recovery in the entire country since the end of the recession.

The real “Texas Miracle” is that Rick Perry still has the audacity to shamelessly call himself “America’s Jobs Governor.”

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