As time permits, we upgrade data in this Maps section, and we hope soon to add maps for a remaining
state or two, and for all of the Canadian provinces. That said, though, please take a moment to read these next paragraphs. They
explain the purpose of this section.
We started this section in 2009, when the unemployment rate still was close to its lowest
point following the Crash of 2008. And purposely have not updated the maps since then. That's because they provide
a graphic portrayal of the contrasts, state-by-state and county-by-county, of areas in the country that have abysmal employment
opportunity, versus excellent opportunity. And even though the unemployment situation has been gradually improving since 2009,
it has been doing so proportionally In most places. Counties and states that had good employment rates in 2009 have
even better ones now. And -- very importantly to keep in mind -- the ones that had poor employment rates back then have
generally improved also... but at about the same pace! So if you compare them by the colors you see in these maps,
you still can see the counties and states that are likely to provide you with the best chances of being hired, if you make applications
there. And by the same token, these maps can help to steer you away from locations that are still impacted by the remaining vestiges
of the recession.
More than two years before the media picked up on it, we already were aware, thanks to our mapping,
that North Dakota was quite the island of opportunity, and that there was a 400-mile-wide corridor of relatively recession-free
states running south from there all the way to and including central Texas.
A couple recently phoned from Casper, Wyoming, to thank us for tipping them off with the maps. They
moved all the way there from Florida a year earlier, due to studying those, and they love it there!
Finally, the most important single item in this section is the comparison of the current recession
(which they say officially ended in 2009) and the previous major one that took place almost 30 years earlier. That discussion,
maps and all, is the first item in the pull-down menu below. Just (1) click
on the top item of the menu, then (2) choose "1982 vs. 2009 Recessions"...
and then (3) click on the "Go" button.
