The recent meltdown in the commodities market may be hurting commodities investors across the board, but as far as state’s are concerned, the pain is being felt in some places much more than others.
States where a large percentage of the economy is based on energy, mining and agriculture are being hurt more than states like New Jersey or Massachusetts, where the economy is not dependent on the production of these raw materials, according to the Bloomberg Commodity Index.
Commodities markets hit a 13-year low this summer and plunged 61 percent from the peak in 2008, Bloomberg says. Jobs have been reduced by about 50,000 a month because of the disaster in the commodities market.
The more a state is dependent on commodities, the more the economy is now at risk and state budgets in many of these states are reflecting this. In ascending order, the following are the 10 states that are most dependent on energy, mining and agriculture. Each has nearly 10 percent (and some have much more) of its economy dependent on commodities, and the one hit the worst has a whooping 36 percent of its economy dependent on these three commodities.
No.10 Montana
Montana has 9.8 percent of its economy invested in the three main commodities sectors.