The Wall Street Journal bashed Mississippi to open the New Year: “The American South Is Booming. Why Is Mississippi Left Behind?”
“Economic and population growth is transforming other Southern states such as neighboring Tennessee,” said the article. “But Mississippi essentially missed out.” The article cited recent downturns as well as long term trends.
It emphasized that Mississippi faces “a shrinking workforce problem – with people of working age on the sidelines and younger people moving away – as it also struggles to attract new residents.”
It pointed to Mississippi’s lowest-in-the-nation labor force participation rate, 53.9%, then noted a declining trend. “Mississippi’s civilian labor force had shrunk 1.4% from what it was a decade earlier, even as the South’s workforce overall has grown exponentially. For example, neighboring Tennessee’s labor force increased almost 11% for the same period.”
About the same time the article came out, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann announced that improving the labor force participation rate would be one of his top priorities.
The article also referenced Mississippi’s high disability rate. “About 12.6% of the state’s population under the age of 65 have a disability, compared with 8.9% overall in the U.S., according to Census Bureau estimates.”
It pointed to brain drain as a key issue using information from State Auditor Shad White. “Only about half of the graduates from Mississippi’s public universities work in the state three years after graduation. Many leave for growing metropolitan areas in other parts of the South.”
In response, Gov. Tate Reeves, who has been in top state leadership roles since 2012, blamed brain drain and the low labor force participation rate, in part, on City of Jackson problems and PERS. “What has certainly been a struggle in Mississippi compared to other states is the lack of a major metropolitan area to attract young people.” He also claimed that public employees being able to retire after 25 years with large pensions takes people out of the workforce.
Interestingly, a key focus of the article was Tupelo which it called “far better off than other parts of the state” then described workforce and population declines it is facing.
Toward the end of the article a few positives appeared but these were overshadowed by a number of residents’ negative comments, including this one to end the article. “My five-year plan is to be somewhere different – and her too,” said a Tupelo mom about her and her daughter.
But the real negative impact came from the hundreds of comments posted on the Wall Street Journal website. “Brutal” said the Jackson Jambalaya blog.
Bill Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.