March 02, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Highest State unemployment rates in 2008

In 2008, Michigan reported the highest unemployment rate at 8.4 percent.

States with the highest unemployment rates and U.S. unemployment rate, 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Rhode Island (7.8 percent) and California (7.2 percent) had the next highest rates in 2008.

The annual average U.S. jobless rate was 5.8 percent in 2008. Fourteen States and the District of Columbia recorded rates significantly above it.

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. To learn more, see "Regional and State Unemployment, 2008 Annual Averages" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 09-0186.

 

 

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