News release: “Today the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released its monthly state-by-state report Understanding the Economy: State-by-State Snapshots, featuring key economic indicators for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report has been updated to include state data released April 16 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and is the fourth installment of JEC’s State-by-State Economic Snapshots series. The first report was released in January 2010. The updated reports show that in many states, the economy is growing, especially in the area of private-sector employment. In March, twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia saw increases in private sector employment, eleven states saw increases in February and March, and seven states experienced increases in private sector employment in all three months in the first quarter of 2010.”