If you want job envy, try North Dakota

July's unemployment rate was 3.3 percent, lowest of any state in the country and light years ahead of California's 12 percent, which is second-highest in the country. North Dakota also added 19,700 payroll jobs in July, compared with California's paltry 4,500. And there's more, from Mark Perry:

North Dakota home prices have risen consistently through the national housing bubble and subsequent crash, and reached an all-time high in the first quarter of 2011 (see bottom chart above). While the national real estate crash has brought average U.S. home prices back to 2003 levels, home prices in North Dakota have continued to appreciate every year even through the recession and financial crisis, and are now 42.5% above 2003 levels. North Dakota's Coincident Economic Activity Index (based on employment, unemployment, wages and salaries, and average hours worked in manufacturing) is above its cyclical peak in early 2008 by almost 12% (see bottom chart above). Even in Texas, which gets all of the national attention for the state's economic success and job creation, its economic activity index is still slightly below the early-2008 peak.

The reason for all this is oil - lots of it. North Dakota set a monthly oil production record in June, up 22 percent from a year earlier and 79 percent two years ago. Enough prosperity for you? Apparently not for some folks in the state, who cite a recent study about the business climate. From the West Fargo Pioneer:

One study, completed by Ernst & Young, calculated business taxes as a proportion of gross state product. With the exception of Alaska, the calculations ranked North Dakota as the state with the greatest burden - 8.5 percent. South Dakota came in with 4.2; Montana scored six, and Minnesota around 4.3. The criteria used for making the calculations included state corporate taxes, income and unemployment taxes, municipal property levies, taxes and fees tied to unemployment, public utilities, corporate licensing and insurance. This rating runs counter to our perception of North Dakota's revenue system which many believe to be pro-business.

The article closes this way: "North Dakota doesn't need a negative tax image in addition to other disadvantages." Some people are just never satisfied.