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Perspective…politicians work hard to sell their perspectives to voters. Sometimes, they find a narrow focus helps.

For example, Gov. Tate Reeves has chosen lately to use a narrow focus to tout Mississippi’s economic progress.

“Mississippians are learning more and earning more,” he said in touting the state’s 17% per capita personal income gain since 2018. “It seems like every week there is more good news coming out about Mississippi. This is just one more example of the incredible momentum our state has.”

A broader focus shows every state experiencing similar “incredible momentum.” All achieved double digit personal income growth during that period. The national average increase was 16% as COVID payments, tight labor markets, and inflation bumped up income across the nation.

Significantly, Mississippi held on to the bottom behind West Virginia with the nation’s lowest average personal income.

“We made it a priority to increase wages,” the Governor touted.

Mississippi did make gains. Average wages were up 16.5% from 2019 to 2022. But, as with personal income, every state enjoyed double digit wage growth. The national average increase was 18.1% as tight labor markets and inflation bumped up wages across the nation.

Again, Mississippi held the bottom with the lowest average annual wages behind West Virginia.

Gov. Reeves also touted the state’s “strong economic growth.”

The state economy has grown. But, last week Mississippi was not one of the states that Axios.com highlighted with strong gains in manufacturing from January 2019 to May 2023. Manpower reports published by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security show manufacturing jobs increased from 146,200 in January 2019 to 147,900 in May 2023, a 1.1% increase over that three and a quarter year span.

Also, as I wrote recently, the wealth boom sweeping over the South skipped over Mississippi.

Finally, the Governor has touted the state’s record low unemployment rate. “This is a tremendous victory for every business, every community, and every Mississippian across our state,” he said.

Yes, the unemployment rate is down to 3.3%. But, a look at MDES labor force reports show that was not because more people got jobs. In fact around 5,000 fewer people were employed than in 2019. The unemployment rate change resulted from over 20,000 individuals disappearing from the labor force and the unemployment rolls – not exactly a win.

Total employment was down around 5,000 over that same period. And the state’s labor participation rate of 54.5% in June remained the nation’s lowest, behind West Virginia.

The Governor’s facts have been correct, but his narrow focus leaves out a lot.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.