Tops was Washington and Utah; No. 4 was Massachusetts, No. 5 was New Hampshire.
Lows: West Virginia, Hawaii, Wyoming, Louisiana and South Dakota.The Philadelphia Fed has its own state-by-state economic strength index that tracks business output. For the first quarter, California ranked fifth with a 10.7% annual growth rate.Lows: Alaska and Nebraska at 3.5%, Kentucky at 3.6% and Mississippi at 4%.WalletHub’s scorecard devotes one-third of its grades to California’s sweet spot — technology.
And the only measure reflecting the cost of living, a California weakness, is tracking state poverty rates — and that’s just 2% of the results.Politically speaking, and defining “blue” vs. “red” states as those who supported President Biden vs. those who did not, the spreadsheet found blue states averaged a No. 21 overall ranking while the red landed at No. 31.
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at