(May 2022) Nonfarm payroll employment is the broadest economic indicator at the state level. Utah had a higher jobs creation rate than any state in the last economic expansion, according to a Policy Foundation analysis of employment data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts determined the expansion occurred between June 2009 and February 2020.
Job creation rates in 16 states exceeded the U.S. average in the period. Two border Arkansas. They are Tennessee and Texas.
| State | Growth Rate |
| Utah | 32.76% |
| Idaho | 27.0% |
| Nevada | 26.768% |
| Colorado | 25.9% |
| Texas | 25.619% |
| Florida | 25.612% |
| Arizona | 23.4% |
| Washington | 23.0% |
| California | 22.6% |
| Oregon | 22.4% |
| South Carolina | 21.49% |
| Tennessee | 21.0% |
| North Dakota | 20.0% |
| Georgia | 19.7% |
| North Carolina | 18.7% |
| Massachusetts | 16.7% |
| United States | 16.4% |
| Michigan | 15.96% |
| New York | 15.54% |
| Indiana | 14.1% |
| Montana | 13.97% |
| Minnesota | 13.3% |
| Delaware | 12.8% |
| Arkansas | 12.25% |
| Virginia | 12.079% |
| Kentucky | 11.69% |
| Hawaii | 11.64% |
| Ohio | 11.07% |
| New Hampshire | 10.3% |
| South Dakota | 10.0% |
| Maryland | 9.96% |
| Alabama | 9.8% |
| Rhode Island | 9.74% |
| Wisconsin | 9.55% |
| Nebraska | 8.968% |
| Illinois | 8.927% |
| Pennsylvania | 8.74% |
| Missouri | 8.4% |
| Oklahoma | 7.957% |
| Iowa | 7.8% |
| Maine | 7.543% |
| New Jersey | 7.540% |
| Kansas | 6.5% |
| Vermont | 6.439% |
| New Mexico | 6.408% |
| Mississippi | 6.0% |
| Louisiana | 4.9% |
| Connecticut | 4.1% |
| Alaska | 3.0% |
| Wyoming | 1.2% |
| West Virginia | 0.5% |
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— Greg Kaza |
