Michigan and Mississippi?

What do Michigan and Mississippi have in common? Both have August unemployment rates of 7.1%, the highest state jobless rates in the country. States with the lowest unemployment rates in August are Hawaii (2.8%), SD (3.2%), Utah (3.2%) and VA (3.2%).

TEN states have set historical record low unemployment rates so far this year in 2006:
Alabama (3.3% in March)
Arizona (3.6% in August)
Florida (3.0% in June)
Idaho (3.2% in March)
Louisiana (2.9% in July)
Montana (3.4% in March)
Nevada (3.6% in January)
New Mexico (4.0% in March)
Washington (4.6% in March)
West Virginia (3.8% in January)

I wrote about this in a newspaper commentary distributed nationally a few months ago, when there were nine states with record low jobless rates, now Arizona makes the 10th state with its record low rate in August.

Even in its worst recession, the U.S. economy is still stronger than almost any other country in the world during their best years. And yet even now when the U.S. economy has a historically high level of employment, historically low unemployment rates in nine states, and higher national income, output and tax revenues than at any time in U.S. history, the Dangerfield economy still gets no respect.