Here’s the latest chart from the state employment data released this week.

Red states are still overwhelmingly the best performers in terms of job growth compared to pre-pandemic levels, with five states managing over 10% cumulative job growth in just over five years. The top states have two things in common: they are all right-to-work states and they all have low or no income taxes.

In the first two years after the Spring of 2020, job growth was almost solely dependent on whether states kept their economies locked down. Blue states paid a heavy price for their catastrophic fetal position COVID responses.

Has that lesson been learned?