One oddity of the chart above, showing that Democrats rate the economy as good and Republicans rate the economy as lousy, is that the economy is much better in the red states than the blue states. This chart shows that in the three years since COVID ended, nonfarm payroll jobs have rapidly expanded in the red states – led by Florida, Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho – which are all 8.5% or more ABOVE their re-lockdown levels. But there are 10 states that still have not recovered all their pre-COVID jobs. And most of them are BLUE states.