Abstract
Job recovery rates are calculated for all 50 states. The rate measures the percentage of a state’s private-sector employment losses during and after the recession that have been recovered as of June 2012. As a benchmark for comparing individual states, the national private-sector job recovery rate is 49.3 percent. Public-sector employment (federal, state, and local) increased well into the national recession. It was affected by numerous factors (federal countercyclical spending, deep tax-revenue declines for state and local governments, and varying political responses at the state and local levels in terms of tax increases versus service reductions).