In just about every corner of the state, people are adjusting their lives and asking when – or if – this national economic crisis will end. In the long term, Mississippi seems set economically – with high-paying manufacturing jobs coming. But, like other states, it must tighten up in the short term.
“For about three years, Mississippi’s economy was as good as it has ever been, and it stopped in the spring with $4 (a gallon) gasoline,” Gov. Haley Barbour said last week.
With the pain at the pump came other issues, including higher food, rent and utility costs, as well as job losses.
“The last time I looked, over 10,000 jobs were lost in the last three months, and I don’t think that is going to stop,” said Bill Gunther, director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Magnolia Tribune
