We often hear that one of the state's biggest economic problems is a skills mismatch. More specifically, we are told that manufacturing firms in the state cannot find enough qualified workers and that this is holding up our state's economic recovery. The problem with this argument, as we've pointed out before, is that it is…
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In this month's edition of Jobs Count, I looked at the Congressional Budget Office's report on the employment and GDP effects of the fiscal cliff. The CBO report spells out how many jobs lost and how much GDP would be reduced for each deficit reducing policy that is a part of the fiscal cliff. Overall,…
Last week, the Pew Center on the States released a report that looks at the impact of the "fiscal cliff" on state tax revenues and spending programs. The report also includes a nice fact sheet on the impact to West Virginia. On the revenue side, West Virginia, like several other states, is linked to the…
On Friday, we co-released a report with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute on the rise of income inequality in West Virginia. Most striking in the report was the average drop in incomes among the bottom 20 percent of West Virginia households since the late 1970s. While the wealthiest…
The independent think tank Headwaters Economics has released a report on the best fiscal practices for states and local governments with oil and natural gas extraction. The report states, "Drilling for oil and natural gas is a high-impact economic activity that presents opportunities and challenges for state and local governments seeking to reconcile the benefits of job and…
West Virginia is nearly a month away from reductions in childcare assistance eligibility requirements that will ipact over 800 parents and 1,400 children. Families that make between 150-185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level will be dropped from the program on January 1, 2013. The changes in eligibility could not only force parents to quite their…
With the election over and the "fiscal cliff" drawing near, the nation's attention has once again turned to the federal government's budget deficit and the problems we face addressing it. Most agree that some combination of spending cuts and tax increases will be necessary in order to put the federal budget on a sustainable path,…
As readers may know, we've talked a lot recently about the future of coal in West Virginia. Specifically, we've aimed at taking a data-driven and evidence-based approach to the issue instead of one focused primarily on unsubstantiated political posturing. The issue is just too important not to be taken seriously. Now, with the election over, …
With the 2012 election firmly behind us, now is the time to fully implement the Affordable Care Act and ensure that no one in West Virginia is without health care coverage. In 2011, approximately 272,000 West Virginians between the ages of 18 and 64 lacked health coverage. As we highlighted in this recent report, about…
One of my favorite social scientists, Lane Kenworthy, has a remarkable essay in the latest Foreign Affairs on America's growing opportunity and income inequality gap. Most notably, Kenworthy finds that addressing these twin problems requires different strategies. For example, while investing in early childhood development may help create more economic opportunity over the long-run it…