Mississippi
It looks like it is not only the musicians experiencing the blues down in Mississippi. More than 72 percent of those who left the previous year wanted to look for work elsewhere. As of December, unemployment is still high at 5.7 percent. This is two percent higher than the national average. A Quora user called Timothy Dunaway said that work is the primary reason people leave the state. He said, “Minimum wage is the norm at most non-factory jobs. Benefits are hard to come by as well. In my county alone, most workers have to travel out of state for decent jobs.”
Indiana
Like other states on the list, people tend to move away from Indiana for work. The state might look like a nice place, but the unemployment rate is below the national median. MERIC said that it is one of the most affordable places in the United States due to low mortgage rates. Sadly, the lower cost of living makes things difficult for residents. The average worker here makes below the national average with a minimum wage of only $7.25 per hour. A Redditor called Sla963 said that the tradeoff is not worth it. “Your salary won’t be as high as it is on the coasts because the cost of living is low. So if you save 10% of your salary, you’re not saving as much money,” they explained, “This matters because Indiana is not a tax-friendly state for retirement. Spend a bit of time googling this issue, and you’ll see that Indiana is actually rated (by some financial advisors, anyway) as one of the worst states for retirement. There aren’t many tax breaks for the elderly here, while there are lots of them in other states.”