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Somewhat Faster Job Churn in Red States; Somewhat Higher Wages in Blue States

A new Washington Post report analysis finds that states that voted for Trump in 2020 tend to have had higher rates of hiring, firing, and quitting over the past decade than states that voted rationally. South Dakota ranks 19th on that count. However, faster turnover doesn’t mean faster job growth: WaPo finds that, outside of the pandemic, job growth has been about the same across red and blue states:

Andrew Van Dam, "Why Are Red States Hiring So Much Faster Than Blue States?" Washington Post, 2023.05.26.
Andrew Van Dam, “Why Are Red States Hiring So Much Faster Than Blue States? Washington Post, 2023.05.26.

One reason Biden-voting states may be seeing a little less churn in their workplaces is that they tend to pay better wages:

Van Dam, 2023.05.26.
Van Dam, 2023.05.26.

Pay better wages, keep talent longer—another of those basic economic lessons South Dakota refuses to learn.

6 Comments

  1. John

    Another inference from the red job churning states . . . they likely are prone to having worse bosses than are found in blue states. Worse bosses contribute to increased job churn.
    Recall it’s the red states, through retail, restaurant lobbyists that are rolling back child labor laws. Those actions and roll-backs are indicative of bad managers – folks who are afraid to pay a living wage, afraid to treat workers as they would want to be treated.

  2. Donald Pay

    John is correct. Supervisors and company policy toward employees make a huge difference. That’s hard to quantity, so it doesn’t get as much attention in studies. People will take a pay cut to get out from under a bad supervisor or a company that treats employee like chattel.

  3. Mike Lee Zitterich

    Lets keep in mind that no Democrat has yet gotten past “Our” adopted 2nd Bill of Right as a Citizen of South Dakota.

    Article 6, Section 2 -No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or nonmembership in any labor union, or labor organization.

    ALL legal persons of which hold a Birth Certificate under the State of South Dakota, which is predominantly all legal persons ages 13 on up, have the same equal right to LIFE, LIBERTY, PROPERTY, PURSUIT TO HAPPINESS as protected by Article 6, Section 1…

    All men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring and protecting property and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

    Parents have the right to “consent” to allowing their Teenager begin to form relationships with other adults, by means of creating employment contracts, buying a used vehicle, to providing in return – the means of conducting means of pursuing their prosperity.

    Once the Parent grants permission to their child, the right to work, in order to help pay the bills, to drive on the roads, etc, the government cannot step in the middle to restrict that relationship, less of course the teenager is placed in such harmful manner.

    This is what allows Family Businesses to employ their own children within the family structure, government cannot invade private property rights, and cause it is a family, private matter, it is no one’s business except for the families, alone.

    Many of us have grown up, and worked within a family business over the years, and many of us began working as early as 5 years old, learning how to clean our bedroom, to doing chores around the home, to helping our parents manage, and work within their own businesses. Nothing wrong with that….

    I am very fortunate, both my parents had at one time, their own family business. My dad started Zitterich Auto Repair in 1979, and it was customary for myself, and my siblings to share in the duties of cleaning bathrooms, sweeping floors, to helping answer phone calls, to helping customer as far back as well, 1980. I am also fortunate my mom once operated a Home Daycare Service, where it was customary to have 15-16 kids in our home at one time, from infants, to toddlers, to children, and it was routine, that myself, and my siblings often helped in the care of those children, from changing diapers, to reading to them, to helping serve lunch, to watching over them…Those were precious years, for they taught me morals, values, self discipline, and character.

    Today, I own my own business of buying and selling used cars, and those morals and values back then, taught me how to treat people, how to be honest, and to learn how to help people. Today, I have helped so many people, I owe a huge thank you to my parents for instilling in me a work ethic like none other. I have become a perfect role model for young children today, it is with great pride, that I can be that person, that young kids can look up to, and I admire anyone who wishes to get involved in becoming a role model, a patron saint to many today.

    I have grown up over my life time, understanding that you get back what you have given, and ‘wages’ are only the material abstract to your labor. It does not matter if you earn $1 per hour, or $1 per the job, or $200 a day, or whatever the value is or is not. I do not get rapped up in material abstracts, I simply go out and produce, utilizing my labor, to create for myself, the capital needed to go about my life.

    In South Dakota, “WE” adopted an BILL OF RIGHT that states, YOU cannot force me to accept any such contract, or join a union or organization for the sole purpose to dictate what I may or may not get paid, I have the right to engage with ALL 887,000 citizens of this state freely regardless of what you think or do not think – I make my own money, based on the perception of what others feel my labor or services are worth.

    Most likely, this mentality I have developed goes back to the things I was taught early in my life, the meaning of a dollar, the power means of bartering my labor to others, to working hard, always brings reward. It really does not matter if you give me a $1 or you pay me 1500 for that used car, if ‘we’ agree that the value of that car is worth $1500, that is the value that two persons place on that vehicle.

    Life is Great, Stop Worshiping Materialistic Things…

  4. Teachers’ wages in red states like South Dakota surf the bottom because Republicans are Balkanizing education amid a fight over critical race theory and in my home state academic freedom is under attack from a reactionary, Earth hating, self-dealing, authoritarian governor.

    It’s important to note Kristi doesn’t write her tweets – they’re generated by her political campaign. Like Trump she’s using her post to milk the prosperity gospel for every penny she can hustle. She addressed a meeting of CNP last August. Noem is also a graduate of the Koch Brothers’ American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC, an anti-think tank think tank that teaches how wedge issues raise campaign dollars for the nut wing of the Republican Party.

  5. All Mammal

    I cared for a baby one time who had the hershey squirts so badly, it couldn’t be contained in his diaper. I remember being in awe of how so much diarrhea could come out of one little person. KN, and sometimes other people, remind me of that amazing little tike.

  6. e platypus onion

    ALL legal persons of which hold a Birth Certificate under the State of South Dakota, which is predominantly all legal persons ages 13 on up, have the same equal right to LIFE, LIBERTY, PROPERTY, PURSUIT TO HAPPINESS as protected by Article 6, Section 1…

    Where does it mention a fetus having any rights, or even children up to ae 12?

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