Over-the-year changes in State unemployment rates

September 29, 2010

In August, 26 States and the District of Columbia posted unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, 21 States reported increases, and 3 had no change.

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There were statistically significant over-the-year jobless rate decreases in 8 States in August, the largest of which were in Alabama (‑1.4 percentage points), Tennessee (‑1.3 points), and North Carolina (‑1.2 points).

Montana and Florida recorded the only significant rate increases from August 2009 (+1.0 and +0.7 percentage point, respectively).

The remaining 40 States and the District of Columbia registered unemployment rates that were not appreciably different from those of a year earlier.

Among the regions, the Midwest was the only region to register a significant rate change from a year earlier (‑0.6 percentage point).

Nevada again reported the highest unemployment rate among the States, 14.4 percent in August, which was a new series high. The States with the next highest rates were Michigan, 13.1 percent, and California, 12.4 percent. North Dakota continued to register the lowest jobless rate, 3.7 percent, followed by South Dakota and Nebraska, at 4.5 and 4.6 percent, respectively.

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent month are preliminary. For more information, see "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment — August 2010" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-1316.