Maryland Ranks Last In Pace Of Job Creation

Estimates show a nearly 20,000-job loss in past 12 months, but more are finding work — perhaps out of state

Hampered by a slowdown in federal spending, Maryland came in dead last in the nation for its pace of job creation over the past year, shedding almost 1 percent of its employment base — nearly 20,000 positions — the U.S. Department of Labor reported.

The figures released Friday show declines in Maryland in eight of the past 12 months. Twenty-two states added jobs during the past year.

The preliminary report, which could be revised, isn't uniformly bad. The Labor Department's survey of households suggests that more Marylanders are working, either by finding employment out of state or by starting new businesses, neither of which would show up in the separate jobs count.

About 25,000 more Marylanders were working in May than were a year earlier, gains made largely in recent months.

The unemployment rate has trended downward as a result, from 7.4 percent in May 2010 to 6.8 percent last month. The rate was unchanged from April.

But that doesn't negate the job-creation problem facing Maryland. The state weathered the recession better than the nation as a whole, but it is now dealing with slowdowns and cutbacks to federal agencies and contractors — a key part of the regional economy — on top of a lackluster national recovery.

"The Maryland economy is weak," said Richard Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute. "We need to see a broad-based national recovery, and until that happens, Maryland will lag. Government contracting is certainly not the same type of growth industry it's been over the last two decades."

The state's employers added nearly 10,000 jobs in April, according to data adjusted to account for normal seasonal changes in hiring and cutbacks. But that gain was more than wiped out by a 13,300-job loss in May that cut a swath across nearly every major sector.

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