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Governors with best job-creation record: Jack Dalrymple, North Dakota, No. 1

G. Scott Thomas

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Jack Dalrymple has been riding a powerful economic wave in, of all places, North Dakota.

The sparsely populated state at the northern edge of the Great Plains has been booming since Dalrymple became governor in December 2010. North Dakota has added 56,600 private-sector jobs during the past two-and-a-half years, yielding an annual growth rate of 7.32 percent, easily the best in America.

Dalrymple, as a result, has the strongest job-creation record of any of the nation's governors, according to a new On Numbers study.

Here are the five governors who've emerged with the best scores, followed by the five with the worst marks.

Here is On Numbers' top-to-bottom rankings of 45 of the country's 50 governors. (The five who assumed their duties earlier this year have been excluded from the study.)

On Numbers analyzed private-sector employment levels in each state during the tenure of its current governor, using seasonally adjusted data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The score for each governor is based on a comparison of the annual growth rate for his or her state and the corresponding figure for the other 49 states.

North Dakota, for example, has dramatically outperformed the rest of the country since Dalrymple assumed office. Its private-sector growth rate of 7.32 percent per year is 5.38 percentage points ahead of the collective pace for the rest of the nation over the same span, 1.94 percent per year.

The runners-up in the national rankings are Rick Perry of Texas (with a score of +1.28 percentage points) and Gary Herbert of Utah (+1.08 points).

Experts can (and do) argue about the ability of any governor to manipulate a state's economy. Many are downright skeptical. Economist Justin Wolfers, for instance, has written that governors often benefit from lucky breaks, such as the energy boom that is driving the current growth in North Dakota and Texas.

But the On Numbers study reflects a basic fact of political life. Governors routinely take credit for economic growth (regardless of their actual level of involvement), and are equally certain to be blamed for economic decline.

The frontrunners in the current rankings have put this principle into action:

• Dalrymple has not been shy about taking credit for North Dakota's prosperity. "Under his leadership, more than 60,000 new jobs have been created," his official website boasts.
• Perry's unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign, in the words of Time magazine, "was predicated almost entirely on his job creation claims."
• Herbert, who describes himself as "fiercely focused on growing Utah's economy," has highlighted his role by establishing an ambitious goal of creating 100,000 jobs in 1,000 days.

At the bottom of On Numbers' rankings is Matthew Mead, who was inaugurated as governor of Wyoming in January 2011.

Mead's state is expanding, though it has been unable to keep pace with the rest of the nation. Private-sector employment has grown 0.81 percent per year in Wyoming since Mead took office, falling 1.17 percentage points behind the collective rate for the other 49 states, 1.98 percent per year.

A high-profile challenger, Cindy Hill, announced in January that she will run against Mead for the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year. Hill, who is aligned with the Tea Party, seems to be motivated by personal and political considerations, not by Wyoming's job situation, though the rankings do hint that Mead might be economically vulnerable.

There's a two-way tie for the position just above Mead in the standings. Paul LePage of Maine and Susana Martinez of New Mexico both have scores of minus-1.07, based on comparisons of the private-sector growth rates for their states and the rest of the nation.