About a year ago I laid myself off and went back to school. I wanted to upgrade to something that didn't require physical labor. I had my own company, and was able to do lots of cool stuff around Boise, but as the housing and remodeling contracted, I was almost forced to move on. But now I see this contraction in labor and other markets as a great opportunity. When the opportunity cost of doing something else becomes too big, it's time to do that something. The market for labor is like anything else. When those resources aren't being use efficiently, they either wither away or get bought out to produce something else. Obviously people don't wither. They move on. Is it hard? Yes. But in the long run contractions like the one the world seems to be experiencing is a good thing. America and the world will bounce back stronger than ever. It always does.

Useful Stats: R&D Performed by Industry within U.S., Per State, 2002-2006

SSTI has prepared a table displaying the amount of funding companies spent on R&D in each state from 2002 to 2006, the state’s rank in 2006, the percent change over this five-year period, and the rank of that percent change.

View the table at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/111208t.htm.

California led the country with $58.4 billion in R&D funding from industry in 2006. This was followed by Michigan ($16.5 billion), Massachusetts ($15.6 billion), New Jersey ($14.6 billion), and Texas at $13.3 billion. Washington, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut rounded out the top ten states.

**Alabama realized the largest percent increase from 2002 to 2006, rising from $846 million in 2002 to $1.83 billion in 2006 – a gain of 117 percent.

**New Mexico was the only other state to witness more than a doubling spent on R&D by industry.