Chart of the Day: Texas Jobs vs. California Jobs

In response to some discussion on this recent CD post about state tax burdens, the chart above is an updated comparison of monthly employment levels in Texas and California back to 1996.  Since January 2008 when the recession was starting and the California employment level was peaking, Texas has gained 228,000 jobs (and never really had much of a downturn in employment even during the worst recession in modern times), while California has lost more than one million jobs (1,113,200).  In contrast, during the 1996-2007 period employment levels were increasing in both states at about the same rate.