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) – A coalition of 19 attorneys general signed a letter urging President Joe Biden not to expand his executive powers to raise or ignore the debt ceiling without congressional approval.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led the group and was prompted by Biden's statements on his assertion the executive branch has authority under the 14th Amendment to bypass Congress.

“Our constitutional system may be frustrating at times, but it is the fundamental guarantor of American liberty, and we must all abide by the oaths we swore to defend it,” the letter states. “The Constitution very deliberately invests the power of the purse in Congress. That power includes the authority to tax, the authority to spend, and, explicitly, the authority to borrow money on the credit of the United States.”

Biden and Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy and their staffs have been in negotiations to reach an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling and prevent the U.S. government from defaulting on its debt obligations. Earlier this week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to McCarthy and warned that the Treasury may be unable to pay its bills as early as June 1. Business and consumer confidence would also be influenced by not increasing the debt limit.

“The Constitution is clear that only Congress has the power to authorize an increase in the national debt,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “The separation of powers in our constitutional system may be frustrating sometimes, but the checks and balances it creates are the heart of American liberty. If we start taking illegal shortcuts, no matter how compelling the justification, we put our whole system at risk.”

Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was one of the attorneys general who signed the letter and called Biden's possible actions political.

“President Biden is yet again ignoring the blatant framework of our Constitution, which is the very bedrock of our nation, to satisfy his political agenda,” Bailey said in a statement. “If not for the states, the federal government would run roughshod over our nation's system of checks and balances. I will not stand by and allow the integrity of our nation to be eroded by a President who has no respect for the Constitution.”

The letter expressed a belief that Biden and legislators will reach a solution but warned of legal ramifications if Congress is bypassed.

“We have faith that you and our federal legislators will find a solution and resolve the immediate problem,” the letter stated. “But should your administration attempt an authoritarian end-run around the separation of powers, we will not hesitate to use the legal tools at our disposal to defend the integrity of our constitutional system.”

In addition to Tennessee and Missouri, the letter was signed by the top law enforcement officials from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

(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%.