WEST VIRGINIANS HAVE MOST DISMAL OUTLOOK ON ECONOMY, SAYS GALLUP - WalMart State's Biggest Employer

(08/13/2012)
By Bob Weaver

A new Gallup poll finds that Americans in every state have a negative economic confidence index, but West Virginians have a particularly dismal outlook on their economic future.

In West Virginia, Gallup Economic Confidence Index was a -44. The closest to that was Arkansas with a rating of -35.

The state has long put their economic future on extractables, but with the rise and fall of coal, what's left is counties in the state who are the most economically depressed in the USA.

According to Gallup, the Economic Confidence Index is a composite of Americans' ratings of current U.S. economic conditions and their perceptions of the economy's direction.

The index has a theoretical maximum of +100, if all respondents rate the economy "excellent" or "good" and say it is getting better. A theoretical minimum of -100 if all rate the economy "poor" and say it is getting worse.

In discussion of economic confidence survey, Gallup outlined a connection between availability of job markets and economic confidence.

In West Virginia, like other states, tens of thousands of blue collar jobs have been globalized, in addition to the outsourcing of high tech jobs, a fact that is never mentioned in the national political debate.

WalMart is West Virginia's largest employer.

The states with the highest Economic Confidence Index — Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah and Texas — have among the best job markets in the nation.

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