Swing-State Economics: Nevada
Unemployment rate (September): 5.8 percent (U.S.: 5 percent)
Median income (2015): $52,431 (U.S.: $55,775)
Poverty rate (2015): 14.7 percent (U.S.: 14.7 percent)
College share (2015): 23.6 percent (U.S.: 30.6 percent)
The real-estate bubble was at its bubbliest in Nevada, which meant the state also experienced one of the country’s worst slumps when the bubble burst. Unemployment neared 14 percent in the state at the peak of the crisis, and it would have been worse if many construction workers hadn’t abandoned the state when jobs dried up. Even today, more than seven years after the recession officially ended, the state still suffers from relatively high unemployment and has a larger share of “underwater” homes (homes that are worth less than their owners owe on their mortgages) than any other state.