A resilient U.S. economy crushed expectations by adding 216,000 jobs in December, leaving Americans asking: What happened to that recession that experts predicted would ruin 2023?

In Maryland, meanwhile, the unemployment rate recently dropped to the lowest rate of any state in recorded history. And while that sounds great on the surface, there are signs that Maryland's economy is struggling ... and has been since well before the pandemic.

Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman has released the state's first-ever State of the Economy Report, which found that Maryland's economy has been largely stagnant since 2017.

Lierman was clear up front: "Maryland has a high performing economy and tops the nation in several key economic categories, including the highest median household income ($108,200) and the lowest unemployment rate (1.8%). Maryland also has above average productivity and one of the lowest poverty rates in the U.S."

Still, there is room for improvement. Among the report's findings:

• About 100,000 women have left the workforce since the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, "most of them at a peak working age and at a rate at least twice as high as the national average," The Washington Post reported.
• Maryland's gross domestic product is growing at a fraction of the rate of the rest of the country. From between the fourth quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2023, Maryland’s GDP grew at just 1.6%, compared with 13.9% for the entire U.S. during the same period.
• Maryland employers are struggling to fill job openings. There are 3.1 job openings for every Marylander who is looking for work. Nationwide, there are 1.3 jobs for every job seeker.

The first-of-its-kind report is broken down into four sections -- recent Maryland economic trends, labor force participation trends, population and migration trends, and state of the economy regional roundtable summaries, which illustrates the experiences of Marylanders as they navigate an evolving economy.

• Download the Maryland State of the Economy Report in its entirety. 

Read more about the report in The Washington Post | The Daily Record | The Baltimore Sun | WJZ | WBAL