Red States Leading U.S. Economic Growth, Commerce Department Report Finds

South Dakota, Texas, and Utah are leading the U.S. in economic growth, according to a new report from the Department of Commerce.

The three top states are all in the hands of Republicans, with Republican governors, Republican state senates, and Republican state assemblies, The Center Square reported. Of the remaining seven states in the top 10 for economic growth, five were also Republican strongholds. From the Center Square:

The report is based on 2020 fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data and February 2021 unemployment rates.

Real GDP increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the fourth quarter of 2020. Real GDP for the U.S. as a whole increased at an annual rate of 4.3%. The percent change in real GDP in the fourth quarter ranged from 9.9% in South Dakota to 1.2% in the District of Columbia.

The top three states in quarter-over-quarter growth were South Dakota (9.9%), Texas (7.5%), and Utah (7.1%). All three have Republican trifecta governments, with Republicans controlling the governor’s offices and both chambers of state legislatures.

The two Democrat-held states in the top 10 were Connecticut with 7% growth and Delaware with 5.8% growth. The remaining five Red states in the top 10 are Tennessee with 6.7% growth, Iowa and Nebraska with 6.3% growth each, Alaska with 5.8% growth and Missouri with 5.6% growth.

With that growth also came corresponding unemployment rates. South Dakota and Utah have the lowest unemployment rates in the country, at 2.9% and 3%, respectively. Hawaii and California have the highest unemployment rates, at 9.2% and 9%, respectively.

“On March 26, the New York Federal Reserve ‘GDP Nowcast’ model, which estimates real-time economic growth, said that while the U.S. economy grew at 6.1% in the first quarter of 2021, it will only grow at 0.7% in the second quarter,” the Center Square reported. “Fed analysts attribute the ‘negative surprises from personal consumption expenditures, manufacturers’ shipments of durable goods, and housing data’ as contributing factors for the forecasted decrease. Their forecast for the entire year is roughly 6% growth or higher.”

The report follows one from October showing the third quarter of 2020 was the best quarter in American history, The Daily Wire’s Joe Curl reported.

“For July, August, and September, the gross domestic product (GDP), which measures total goods and services produced, grew at the record-shattering pace 0f 33.1% on an annualized basis,” Curl wrote. “The previous post-World War II record was the 16.7% growth in the first quarter of 1950. The new burst came after a 31.4% plunge in the second quarter.”

The GDP growth also coincided with a drop in the unemployment rate, which fell to 8.4% in August from 10.2% in July, The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra reported.

“Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million in August and the unemployment rate tumbled to 8.4% as the U.S. economy continued to climb its way out of the pandemic downturn,” CNBC reported at the time. “The unemployment rate was by far the lowest since the coronavirus shutdown in March, according to Labor Department figures released Friday.”

The third-quarter growth was a vast improvement over the second quarter, which was the worst in history, though the economy was still 3.5% smaller than it was in the end of 2019, due to the coronavirus pandemic and numerous states shutting down their economies.

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