South By North Strategies, Ltd.

In the first installment of the 2010 State of the South Report, MDC, Inc. analyzes the region’s lost economic decade. The report find that the developments of the last decade have cost the region much of the social and economic progress made between 1980 and 2000. Moreover, the sluggish recovery poses a threat to the region’s future prosperity. From the report …

The hard realities embedded in these data pose difficult yet urgent issues for state and local policymakers. A consensus has formed that job growth will not become robust enough in the near future to both absorb new entrants into the labor market and to put all of today’s unemployed back to work. Even given a modest recovery, no amount of industry recruiting is likely to dig the South out of the deep job-loss hole anytime soon. What can, and should, the states and communities of the South do in the face of stunning job losses, especially in factories, construction trades, and finance, where Southern minorities and men had clustered? While states have much less ability to apply stimulus than the federal government, they have tools at their disposal, including assistance to small businesses, encouraging innovation, preparing the way for “green” jobs in energy and environmental endeavors, and—it should be on the table—considering opportunities for public-financed jobs to alleviate pockets of debilitating distress.