The need to be creative in a depressed economy continues as the nation’s unemployment rate stagnates at 9.1 percent, adding no new jobs to the economy as of August.

Ad Agency News quotes Governor Cuomo’s office as stating it’s battling an “image of having one of the worst business climates in the nation,” and that it’s subsequently embarking on a $50 million ad campaign to promote New York as a great place to live and work in.

Changing New York’s image from that of a financial mecca to an idea mecca akin to say,  Silicon Valley is somewhat old news: In December of 2010, The New York Times had this article on Mayor Bloomberg inviting universities worldwide to create a technological campus on a par with Stanford or MIT. According to the Times, the schools’ bids are due in October.

Although New York’s unemployment rate in July was actually lower than the rest of the nation—holding at eight percent—some analysis of 2010 Census data pointed toward a trend of New York exodus. The Empire Center, a project of the right-leaning Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, released a report in August that showed domestic migration from the state to be “the highest of any state as a percentage of population.”

Data from the 2010 Census also showed a marked migration among African Americans who have left their northern cities for a more comfortable lifestyle in the South, especially the suburbs. You can listen to a thoughtful report on this “reverse migration” from NPR’s Alex Kellog for Morning Edition, a phenomenon he describes as the “gradual return of many black Americans to the South.”

Photo by flickr member Alex E. Proimos