The United States has the most dynamic economy in the world. Where it once was symbolized by the automotive and steel industries, the American economy is now the world's technology colossus. But the U.S. economy is more than that. It is a unique sum of the parts of 50 states whose identities are often tied to a particular job or industry. (And domestic workers hold the most jobs in these 12 states.)

Using data on employment by state for all detailed occupations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Wage and Employment Statistics survey for May 2022, 24/7 Wall St. identified the most unique job in every state.

Based on location quotient – the ratio of the concentration of an occupation's employment in a state relative to its concentration nationwide – upholsterers ranks as the most unique occupation in Mississippi. With 3,500 jobs in the field out of 1,131,550 jobs in the state, the occupation is 17.0 times more concentrated in Mississippi than it is nationwide.

The average annual wage for workers in the occupation across the state is $37,280, compared to $41,900 nationwide.

(The Center Square) — An annual report by the state's legislative watchdog committee warns that Mississippi's public defined benefit pension system is facing serious financial and demographic challenges.

The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, better known as the PEER Committee, released its annual review of the Public Employee's Retirement System of Mississippi, which is the pension fund for the vast majority of state, county and municipal employees.

According to the report, the plan is expected to be only 48.6% fully funded by 2047, a significant drop from the optimistic 93.5% predicted by the 2021 projections. The plan's funding ratio, which is defined as the share of future obligations covered by current assets, has been 61.3% for the last two years.

In fiscal 2022, the plan's investments lost 8.45% after amassing a near-record 32.71% in 2021.

The report echoed the data released in the fund's comprehensive annual report, which is usually released in December.

One issue is flagging investment returns. The retirement system's board of directors voted in 2021 to decrease the expected rate of return from 7.75% to 7%, which staff uses for planning purposes. It's the second time in the past decade the governing board has acted after lowering the expectation from an unrealistic 8% in 2015.

The plan's funding policy, which requires enough excess returns above expectations to lower the assumed rate of return, has only allowed the rate to be reduced to 7.55%, which PEER says is problematic.

“The PERS Board's choice to utilize this methodology could continue to be a cause of concern,” the report says. “Selection of this methodology has delayed implementation of the assumption reduction and exacerbated the plan's lower-than-projected investment returns.”

The report also says the plan's demographics are also an issue as a decreasing number of contributing employees support an ever-growing number of retirees. The plan's ratio of active members to retirees declined from 1.81:1 in FY 2012 to 1.24:1 in FY 2022, or approximately 31.49%.

The report also said the plan's assumptions on pay increases for contributing employees, which affects the amount of benefits they'll receive in retirement, are overly optimistic, which can affect the plan's bottom line. The projected annual rate of wage increase is 2.65% and while increases from fiscal 2022 were above that figure, the annual payroll increase in the last decade was 0.98%.

U.S. firearm sales have surged in recent years, a trend that has coincided with a steep increase in gun violence. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a record number of Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2021. While law-abiding citizens with no intention of engaging in criminal activity account for the vast majority of gun purchases, the influx of guns in American households increases the likelihood of firearms falling into the wrong hands, particularly through theft.

According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, more than 1 million firearms were reported stolen by private citizens in the five years from 2017 to 2021. Stolen guns are most commonly burgled from homes and vehicles, but some are also taken directly from a person. Though many stolen guns are ultimately linked to crimes, they are typically first sold on the black market.

Semi-automatic pistols are by far the most commonly stolen firearm type, accounting for over 70% of all reported firearm thefts in the U.S. in the last five years. And all of the top five stolen calibers – .45, .22, .380, .40, and 9mm – are widely available in semi-automatic handguns. (Here is a look at the gun calibers most likely to be used for crime in every state.)

ATF records show that an average of 5,460 firearms were reported stolen from private citizens in Mississippi each year between 2017 and 2021. Adjusting for population, this comes out to about 185.1 stolen firearms annually for every 100,000 residents, the most among states.

An estimated 24.3% of all the firearms reported stolen between 2017 and 2021 were ultimately recovered in-state.

All data in this story is from the ATF's report National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA): Crime Guns – Volume Two. Firearms stolen from gun stores and gunmakers were not considered in this ranking.