Republican-led states are continuing to outperform their Democrat rivals economically, and now have more people in work than there were before COVID.

Analysis by Moody's found that red states - those that have voted for a GOP president in the last two elections - are up 341,000 jobs in total, compared to February 2020.

But it was a different story in blue states, which are still collectively 1.3 million workers down on totals taken just before the pandemic began two-and-a-half years ago.  

According to a Moody's Analytics study, 11 of the top 15 states for economic output, employment, retail sales and new home listings are Republican, with Florida leading the way. 

On the other hand, eight of the bottom ten are Democratic run states. 

A major reason for the shift is the mass migration of the US workforce that occurred during the pandemic,  Between February 2021 and February 2022, 46 million Americans moved, the most in a year since 2010. 

In many cases, this was the result of remote work allowing Americans to seek out cheaper housing and a better quality of life in states away from the pricier coastal areas.

Others likely fled to GOP-led states because of their lighter or non-existent lockdown measures, with school and business closures angering millions of Americans 

The states that saw the most new residents are Florida, Texas and North Carolina, all three of which went for ex-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. The states that lost the most taxpayers, California, New York and Illinois, all went for Biden. 

In addition to being Republican, all of the states that gained residents were also states with fewer Covid-19 restrictions, with Florida being the primary example.

The seven states that never issued work from home orders, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah, all have Republican governors. 

At the same time, states that had least eased their restrictions, Montana, New Hampshire, Arkansas, South Dakota, Utah, Missouri and Nebraska, which are all red states, were recording pre-pandemic levels of economic activity. 

During this period, the sluggish economies of blue states such as California, New York and Hawaii, could be partly attributed to a lack of tourism. 

Whereas states such as Utah and Nebraska count food processing and manufacturing as their most profitable industries, both were sorely needed during the pandemic. 

By the end of 2021, the states experiencing the highest rates of of Covid-19 related deaths were red and the lowest were blue. 

But California witnessed similar trends to Florida, and debate continues over whether lockdowns and mask mandates actually made much difference.  

The ability to work from home as a result of Covid is also thought to be a major motivating factor in encouraging people to move. 

The Journal notes in their reporting that the long term migration effects of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade remains to be seen. 

On May 20, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis