Hawaii, New York Top List Of Worst-Performing States

by Liz Farmer, Forbes, April 7, 2021 (excerpt)

… Hawaii and New York rank last in the nation on key economic growth measures, a sign that the pandemic continues to take a toll on major cities and tourism-reliant economies.

In its first Index of State Economic Momentum update for 2021, the Federal Funds Information for States’ reports that Hawaii lags the nation’s economic momentum by an astonishing 5.14%. New York lags by 2.73%. To put things into perspective, the normal range for lagging states in a typical year is usually no more than 2% below average.

To be sure, this is far from a typical year and the spread since the pandemic began has widened into the 2% and 3% range. But that’s been narrowing as of late and in this latest update, every state except New York and Hawaii are within that normal range for the first quarter of 2021. That these two states continue to falter — and in the case of Hawaii, worsen — is a sign their recovery could take longer than other places….

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PDF: Index of State Economic Momentum March, 2021