The american Dream index

Which states are delivering middle-class jobs?

there are as many ways to define the american dream as there are economists and philosophers. an index published by xavier University is based on a poll in which people rate their financial security, their satisfaction with their homes and other contributors to happiness. commentator peggy noonan says in an april 6 essay in the Wall Street Journal that the dream should be measured not in money but in the freedom to rise above humble beginnings.

the Forbes american Dream index, introduced in March, is another take on this question. it aims to measure, month to month, the trend in middle-class prosperity in each state. employment growth, layoffs, construction activity, labor force participation and entrepreneurship are among the components in our formula.

We pay particular attention to jobs in manufacturing, construction and mining, because that’s where middle-class success is most visible. the larger service sector, with day care workers at one end and doctors at the other, is too economically dispersed to provide a clear picture.

our index is, by design, a lot more volatile than gross domestic product, the usual thermometer for economic progress. it is sensitive to short-term trends in job creation and in unemployment claims. california is not an easy place to put up a building or run a factory, but it gets a respectable dream score because its recent trend is favorable. new york scores low, its goods-producing jobs still marching off to better business climates.

the index is scaled so that the population-weighted average for the 50 states started out as 100 for January 2017. the average ticked up to 100.5 in February. the 18 states with scores above 102 are displayed in the map. For more on the methodology and for monthly updates, see forbes.com/american-dream-index.