SwiftVets.com

[GM Strong]

News item. I wonder if Senator Lurch and Sen. Swimmer quite know what is going on. Maybe people are fleeing the Socialist Republic. Maybe something is going on here.


Mass. Only State With Shrinking Population

BOSTON - Massachusetts was the only state in the nation to lose residents in 2004, U.S. Census data shows.
The state lost an estimated 3,852 people, or about 1.1 percent, in the last year, despite continuing growth in immigration to the Bay State, the Boston Sunday Globe reported.

Paul E. Harrington, an economist at Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies, attributed the fall to a stagnant job market. He said the decline could be an ominous sign for the state.

"Population loss is a pretty fundamental number," he said.

Offsetting the trend is a boost in foreign immigrants, Harrington said, who are counted by the Census but often don't show up in job or unemployment data. That suggests that these workers are being paid under the table, which could create "long-term economic growth problem," he said.

The population of the country swelled by almost 3 million, to nearly 294 million, from July 2003 to July 2004, the Census Bureau reported in its annual population estimates last week.

Massachusetts remained the nation's 13th most populous state with about 6.4 million residents. Between 2000 and 2004, Massachusetts gained just 67,400 people, making it 44th in state population growth, the Census reported.

High housing costs are often blamed for discouraging residents from settling in Massachusetts, but Harrington argued that the main problem is a job market that has not recovered from the recession, which eliminated 200,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate dropped from 6 percent two years ago to 4.6 percent this month, but the work force hasn't expanded accordingly. The shrinking labor force indicates that out-of-work residents stopped looking for jobs or moved elsewhere, while those leaving the state are often young, well-educated people who haven't formed families or establish community roots, Harrington said.

"As a consequence, I think we're sowing the seeds of our long-term destruction here," Harrington said.

Gov. Mitt Romney's communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, said warmer climates are probably drawing would-be residents to warmer climates with cheaper and more plentiful housing.

"Our biggest concern, of course, is that as the economy does come back, our biggest challenge will be a labor shortage," Fehrnstrom said.

Ranch Kimball, Romney's secretary of economic development, said the state has added about 22,000 jobs since February, said he believes that recovery is ongoing.

"I'm more optimistic we'll see a stronger economy in 2005," he said.

Mod Note- please include links ( link added)
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1204/196563.html
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8th Army Korea 68-69

[RogerRabbit]

Along with the closing of the saloon Hillbillie Heaven at the Commons led to the exodus (I'm probably just showing my age)
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"Si vis pacem, para bellum"

[gmez2001]

Sounds good to me,anything that hurts Mr.Kerry makes my day.

Naturally course of events for the baby boomers to move from fully appreciated states to warmer areas of the US. High taxation states will continue to lose population to senior living communities in the south and southwest.
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Tin Can Gunline Vietnam
2nd generation Navy