Though 2014 brought record-breaking stock performances, unemployment that was the lowest since 2008 and the best year for job growth since the turn of the millennium, the rising economic tide has not lifted all ships as some U.S. counties are still floundering, according to a report released Monday by the National Association of Counties.
A county-by-county breakdown of local economic performance was issued Monday in the association’s 2014 County Economic Tracker. The study spans all 3,069 U.S. counties and suggests the majority of local economies have not fully returned to pre-recession stability.
“The U.S. economy doesn’t happen at the abstract macroeconomic level. It happens on the ground, where businesses are located and where Americans live and work,” says Emilia Istrate, the association’s director of research. “County economies are building blocks of the regional economies, state economies and national economy.”
The Secular Jurist 