Why Growing Nebraska Matters is the first of six policy briefs in a new series focused on Economic Barriers that Block Nebraska’s Path to Job & Population Growth.
The Platte Institute for Economic Research is offering the series. Sarah Curry, Policy Director for the Platte Institute, says for the first brief, staff evaluated economic growth variables to see where Nebraska stands compared to other states.
Using a survey of data from the US Department of Labor and Commerce, from 2004-2014, Curry says Nebraska ranked 6th highest in production among all the states and 10th in income growth.
Surprisingly though, she says Nebraska only ranked 27th in job growth. Curry says they will work to figure out why.
"Looking at these figures, problems exist. We want to dive into those. What are states doing that are growing and doing really well? And on the flip side, what are states doing that aren’t going well. So what this series is going to do is really explore the policies of the successful and unsuccessful states and see if there’s any room for improvement in Nebraska.”
Curry says upcoming topics in the policy brief series will center on education, migration and regulation to see how Nebraska compares to other states.
For more information on the series, the website is PlatteInstitute.org/GoodLife