June 22, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

States with the largest increases in unemployment rates, May 2008-May 2009

Among the states, Oregon reported the largest over-the-year jobless rate increase from May 2008 to May 2009 (+6.7 percentage points), followed by Michigan (+5.9 points), and South Carolina (+5.8 points).

States with the largest increases in unemployment rates and U.S. increase in unemployment rate, May 2008-09
[Chart data—TXT]

Thirteen additional states and the District of Columbia recorded rate increases of 4.0 percentage points or more.

The national unemployment rate was 3.9 percentage points higher in May 2009 than a year earlier.

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. More state unemployment statistics are available in "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment: May 2009" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0680.

 

 

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

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