videoThe U.S. economy has taken center stage as Democrats look to battle President Trump ahead of the November election, but their respective messages may resonate stronger in some states than others.
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While the overall U.S. economy is healthy, including an unemployment rate that is sinking to multi-decade lows, the gains don’t always distribute evenly across the country. A new study from Seniorliving.org found that Americans in some states are dealing with much healthier economies than others. Overall, for example, states in the Northeast had the strongest economies on average when compared with the rest of the country.
Trump has pointed to widespread economic gains in the broader economy as the stock market continues to reach new highs and has bolstered retirement accounts. And wages have begun rising faster among low-income Americans.
Democrats, however, contend that the economy is not working for everyone, and that gains in the stock market don’t translate into gains in the wallets for most middle-class families.
As the race for the White House heats up, these are the states with the healthiest economies in the country, according to SeniorLiving.org:
Massachusetts
The unemployment rate in Massachusetts was 2.9 percent as of November, below the national rate of 3.6 percent.
The average annual wage as of 2018, was $63,910, and $121,350 for those earners in the 90th percentile.
The increase in the state’s annual average wage from 2014 to 2018 was 10.9 percent.
Colorado
The unemployment rate in Colorado was even lower than that of Massachusetts at 2.6 percent as of November. That is a decline of 1 percent from the prior year.
The average annual wage as of 2018 was $55,820, and for those in the 90th percentile, it was $104,110.
The annual gross domestic product in the state in 2018 was $371.7 billion.
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California
As of November, California’s unemployment rate had declined by 0.2 percent year over year to 3.9 percent.
Average wages between 2014 and 2018 rose by nearly 10 percent, with the average wage reaching $59,150 by 2018.
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High earners, or those in the 90th percentile, earned an average of $117,590.
The populous state had an annual gross domestic product of nearly $3 trillion in 2018, which is more than the GDP of either the United Kingdom or France.
New Jersey
New Jersey’s unemployment rate as of November was slightly lower than the national rate, at 3.4 percent.
The top 90th percentile earned an average annual wage of $111,920 in 2018, and the average of all earners across the state was $58,210.
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Virginia
After a 0.2 percent year over year decline, the unemployment rate in November was 2.6 percent in Virginia.
The average annual wage in the state was $55,310 as of 2018. For those in the 90th percentile, it was about double that amount – at $110,140.
On the flipside, the state with the worst economy in the U.S., according to the survey, was Mississippi. Kentucky, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas made up the bottom five.