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It’s much easier these days to see state to state comparisons. U.S. News and World Report has been joined by WalletHub, WorldPopulationReview and others in regularly publishing all sorts of rankings.

For example, WalletHub recently published several for Mississippi.

Mississippi ranked 3rd among the 50 states for frequency of job resignations. The ranking was based on both latest month and annual data. West Virginia ranked at the top followed by Arizona. Massachusetts ranked last.

The tight labor market and newly created job opportunities were key factors according to WalletHub researchers. For July Mississippi had a resignation rate of 3.5%. For the 12-month period ending in July it was 3.23%.

In a related study, WalletHub ranked states where employers were struggling the most to fill job openings. Mississippi ranked 7th based on job openings for the latest month and annual data. Alaska, West Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia were the top six states with New York at the bottom.

WalletHub researchers also looked into which states would be most impacted by the resumption of interest on student loan debt. As of September 1st, interest on debt that had been suspended resumed for many students. Mississippi ranked as the second most affected state behind Pennsylvania with Wyoming the least affected.

This analysis combined two major categories of data to determine the rankings – student-loan indebtedness and student-loan forgiveness eligibility. Mississippi ranked 1st in student-loan indebtedness and 19th on student-loan forgiveness eligibility. Among the key debt factors were share of state residents with debt, average debt as a share of income, share of student loans in past-due and default status, and share of graduate students with debt. Among the key forgiveness factors were average student loan debt eligible for forgiveness, share of student borrowers eligible for forgiveness, and taxation of loan forgiveness.

A fourth WalletHub study ranked states most impacted by major natural disasters (hurricanes, tornados, floods, etc.) from 1980 to 2023. Mississippi ranked 1st followed by Louisiana, Texas, and Florida with Maine 50th. Two factors determining the rankings were the number of disasters causing $1 billion plus in damages and losses per capita.

Sources for all the above included the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, Department of Education, the Institute for College Access & Success, Council for Community and Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Student Borrower Protection Center, and the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Wallet Hub is not primarily a data resource company or even a media outlet. It is a personal finance company. Its frequent state rankings appear to be a nifty public relations tool to promote its website.

Bill Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.