It felt good not to be at the top of the economic stress list

It was nice for a change to see a story that listed 20 — yes, 20 — of the most economically stressed counties in the country and not see Mahoning County, or any area county, listed among the wounded.

It seems in recent years that this area has had a target on its back for anyone putting together any kind of worst-place list.

Last year at this time, the Brookings Institution released a study that ranked the Mahoning Valley’s recent economic performance as 90th out of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. And just a week before that, Forbes magazine said the area was among the top 10 in facing “the longest road to recovery” from the national economic recession.

So, when we saw an Associated Press story that listed the 20 most economically stressed counties with populations of at least 25,000 (with each county assigned an “economic stress index”), we started running our finger down the list:

1. Imperial County, Calif., 32.03

2. Lyon County, Nev., 28.16

3. Yuma County, Ariz., 26.4

4. Merced County, Calif., 26.23

5. Sutter County, Calif., 25.22

6. San Benito County, Calif., 24.7

7. Stanislaus County, Calif., 24.65

8. Nye County, Nev., 24.6

9. Yuba County, Calif., 24.2

10. San Joaquin County, Calif., 24.13

11. Luna County, New Mexico, 23.9

12. Clark County, Nev., 23.36

13. Lake County, Calif., 22.91

14. Lapeer County, Mich., 22.14

15. Kern County, Calif., 21.94

16. Iosco County, Mich., 21.85

17. Madera County, Calif., 21.79

18. Riverside County, Calif., 21.64

19. Fresno County, Calif., 21

20. Tulare County, Calif., 20.82

Not to be found were Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Mercer or Lawrence counties. Indeed, almost all the counties are in the West (13 in California alone), and the closest county to us was in Michigan.

All this, of course, should be taken with a grain of salt, for at least two reasons. First, we didn’t tend to put too much stock in these lists when this area did show up on them. Second, there was also a list or the 20 least economically stressed counties, and no local counties showed up there either. That list was dominated by counties in North and South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Wyoming, with one from Louisiana and one from Virginia thrown in for a touch of geographic variety.

Which means we’re somewhere in between almost unbearable stress and near euphoria.

What constitutes stress

The Associated Press explains that the index calculates a score for each county and state from 1 to 100 based on unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. A higher score indicates more stress.

The 20 most stressed all scored above 20 points on the scale. The 20 least stressed had scores ranging from 3.83 (Ward County, N.D.) to 5.32 (Cadington, S.D.) Under a rough rule of thumb, a county is considered stressed when its score exceeds 11.

Uh oh. Because while none of the counties in our five-county area are in the top 20, all scored above 11.

Mahoning County, 15.06

Trumbull County, 15.98

Columbiana County, 16.01

Lawrence County, 11.31

Mercer County, 13.01

The only consolation in those numbers is that nearly half the nation remains economically stressed, and while the numbers have been improving in recent months, stress factors — economic and otherwise — will remain high until there are more jobs. With more jobs, there will be less unemployment and fewer foreclosures and bankruptcies.

The problem is that everyone in Washington agrees that the nation needs more jobs, but there’s scant agreement on what combination of tax, spending and trade policies would spur the creation of jobs.