State Personal Income and Pennsylvania's Economic Ranking

The Bureau of Economic Analysis has released the latest data on personal income by state. For the first time in many years, Pennsylvania grew faster than the nation as a whole - 4.0% to 3.9% - and ranked 28th among the 50 states.

That bit of good news (tempered by the fact that is a relatively slow rate of growth, and that PA historically is behind the nation both in entering and exiting a recession) aside, Pennsylvania still lags behind the rest of the nation in job, income, and population growth under Governor Rendell; ranking 33rd, 40th, and 43rd among the 50 states, respectively. Had Pennsylvania grown at the same rate as the U.S. since 2002, the state would have 72,000 more jobs; 550,000 more residents, and $19.5 billion in additional personal income.

As a point of reference, I included Texas, as Gov. Rendell's minister of propaganda has claimed Pennsylvania has done better than any other "large state" - which is clearly false.