America’s recovery is slow, but there are signs of improvement, at least in some states and some sectors, for those prepared to look for them.

The problem for US politicians is that most voters are not inclined to look. They judge economic progress by the crude measure of “jobs”, and economic growth does not necessarily mean an increase in employment. On the contrary, it might mean that companies are finding more efficient ways of operating.

Some say the policies of the Federal government actually discourage growing businesses from taking on new people.

Since this blog is strictly non-partisan, and since the government’s record on employment will probably be the decisive issue in November’s mid-term elections, it is not for us to take sides.

However, it would be interesting if we could construct an experiment which enabled us to compare different approaches to the economy. For that experiment to be fair, the different approaches would have to be applied to identical situations.

That is impossible in the real world, but it is possible to compare different approaches in places where there are several common factors.

California and Texas are both big states with ethnically diverse populations. Both border Mexico and rely on immigrant labour. Both have significant agricultural and technology sectors. Both have known the extremes of prosperity and poverty in the past. Both have Governors of the same political party.

Yet it is generally accepted that Texas is coming out of recession far more strongly than California.

Perhaps one should not read too much into this. After all, the economic strength of a state varies according to how one defines “wealth”, and most definitions produce patterns that defy neat explanation. For example, several states with “left wing” reputations have a higher percentage of millionaires than most.

So it is unwise to generalise – except to say that it is clear that local variations do matter, and that different policies do produce different results. If this is true within countries, it is true between countries. US politicians should not assume that a return to economic growth will mean a return to high employment. Job generation requires effort – or at least a friendlier attitude from government towards those who might be willing to make that effort.