From Vox. Some comments:
- In the linked-to article this is shown, rightly, as a justification for drilling into aggregate statistics and also as an illustration of how regional an economy (and everything else in life) really is. We get excited about headlines but on the ground, life is very different in different parts of the country.
- Look at South Datoka (second from the top in the belt of middle states). There are counties with high unemployment right next to ones with low. How does this happen? Can’t you just drive the few miles to work next door? Possible explanation: probably a small sample of workers there and maybe some recent shock is to blame (a large employer just moved away?).
- That ugly section of purple in the lower-middle-left is part of a nasty bit of US history coupled with an uncomfortable fact of the current economy.
- Up-up-upstate New York is doing better than I’d have thought (I drive through the area regularly). But Vermont is doing awesome. Again, why no mobility?
- TX is crushing it. I was in Dallas recently and holy cow the place is a construction zone.
- Northern Michigan. Illinois. Yikes.
- Why don’t the workers on the left move to the middle? Moving is hard, there are way more people on the left than jobs in the middle and, well, who knows why?
Not Unreasonable 