Investments in Education and Research Critical to State’s Future Economic Progress

October 6th, 2011

MEPC’s previous post focused on projections for job growth by sector presented in last week’s IHL Economic Outlook Conference. The conference also looked at projections for growth in Mississippi’s employment, personal income, inflation and output for next year.

As the chart below shows, growth rates in output, employment and inflation are all similar for the US and Mississippi with differences of only 0.1% for 2012. However, Mississippi’s personal income, already among the nation’s lowest, is projected to grow slower than the nation’s in 2012. In 2012, personal income is projected to grow 3.1% across the state.

Growth in personal income may be needed among many Mississippi households. As noted in a previous post, median household income across the state has fallen over the decade. Adjusting for inflation, median incomes declined $6,142 from $42,963 in 1999/2000 to $36,821 at the end of the decade

Dr. Marianne Hill with IHL noted that 2012 will likely have larger growth than 2011 assuming Mississippi and the nation avoid another economic recession. The nation and Mississippi are currently at a 40% probability of entering another recession.¹

In the longer term, investments in education and research were both listed as critical to the state’s future economic progress by state and national experts. Industry leaders regularly emphasized that innovation across sectors was key to future competitiveness.

They stated that this innovation could be fueled by investments in education that lead to the training of a more skilled workforce. However, budget hearings last week underscored that many of the needs across Mississippi’s education and training spectrum are at risk of being unmet without approaches that consider pathways to increasing state funding for K-12, community colleges and universities.

Author: Sarah Welker, Policy Analyst
¹Daco, Gregory. IHS Global Insight. Presentation on the U.S. Economic Outlook.