For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, January 28, 2025 USDL-25-0104
Technical information:
Employment: (202) 691-6559 * sminfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/sae
Unemployment: (202) 691-6392 * lausinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/lau
Media contact: (202) 691-5902 * PressOffice@bls.gov
STATE EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT -- DECEMBER 2024
Unemployment rates were higher in December in 6 states, lower in 2 states, and stable in 42
states and the District of Columbia, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Twenty-seven states and the District had jobless rate increases from a year earlier, 6 states
had decreases, and 17 states had little change. The national unemployment rate changed little
over the month at 4.1 percent but was 0.3 percentage point higher than in December 2023.
Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 2 states and was essentially unchanged in 48 states
and the District of Columbia in December 2024. Over the year, nonfarm payroll employment
increased in 33 states and was essentially unchanged in 17 states and the District.
This news release presents statistics from two monthly programs. The civilian labor force and
unemployment data are modeled based largely on a survey of households. These data pertain to
individuals by where they reside. The employment data are from an establishment survey that
measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. These data pertain to jobs on
payrolls defined by where the establishments are located. For more information about the
concepts and statistical methodologies used by these two programs, see the Technical Note.
Unemployment
South Dakota had the lowest jobless rate in December, 1.9 percent. Nevada had the highest
unemployment rate, 5.7 percent, followed by California and the District of Columbia, 5.5
percent each. In total, 21 states had unemployment rates lower than the U.S. figure of 4.1
percent, 5 states and the District had higher rates, and 24 states had rates that were not
appreciably different from that of the nation. (See tables A and 1.)
In December, six states had unemployment rate increases, the largest of which were in Alabama
and Mississippi (+0.2 percentage point each). Two states had rate decreases: Minnesota (-0.2
percentage point) and Montana (-0.1 point). Forty-two states and the District of Columbia had
jobless rates that were not notably different from those of a month earlier, though some had
changes that were at least as large numerically as the significant changes. (See table B.)
Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate increases from December
2023, the largest of which was in South Carolina (+1.7 percentage points). Six states had
over-the-year rate decreases, the largest of which was in Connecticut (-1.2 percentage points).
Seventeen states had jobless rates that were not notably different from those of a year
earlier, though some had changes that were at least as large numerically as the significant
changes. (See table C.)
Nonfarm Payroll Employment
Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 2 states and was essentially unchanged in 48 states
and the District of Columbia in December 2024. Job gains occurred in Texas (+37,500, or +0.3
percent) and Missouri (+11,200, or +0.4 percent). (See tables D and 3.)
Over the year, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 33 states and was essentially unchanged
in 17 states and the District of Columbia. The largest job gains occurred in Texas (+284,200),
California (+180,500), and Florida (+147,900). The largest percentage increase occurred in
Idaho (+3.6 percent), followed by Missouri and South Carolina (+2.8 percent each). (See table E.)
_____________
The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release for December 2024 is scheduled
to be released on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. (ET). The Regional and State
Unemployment 2024 Annual Averages news release is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, March
5, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. (ET). The State Employment and Unemployment news release for January
2025 is scheduled to be released on Monday, March 17, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. (ET).
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Suspension of Publication of Colorado Data |
| |
| Effective with the release of January 2025 data, both the Current Employment Statistics |
| (CES) and Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) programs will be temporarily suspending |
| publication of monthly data for Colorado. This suspension is because of ongoing issues with |
| the modernization of Colorado's unemployment insurance (UI) system. Because of these issues, |
| the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) suspended publication of critical input |
| data used in the production of CES and LAUS estimates. |
| |
| Furthermore, revisions to estimates for 2024 that are scheduled to be issued by both |
| programs in early 2025 will be affected. CES will be unable to complete the 2024 benchmark |
| process for Colorado, while LAUS data revisions for 2024 will use the same inputs from CES |
| and QCEW that had been used during the 2024 estimating year. |
| |
| The State Employment and Unemployment news release for January 2025 is scheduled for |
| March 17, 2025. The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release for |
| January 2025 is scheduled for March 21, 2025. |
| |
| Additional information is available at www.bls.gov/sae/notices/2024/notice-regarding- |
| suspension-of-publication-of-colorado-employment-and-unemployment-data.htm. |
|_______________________________________________________________________________________________|
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Upcoming Changes to Local Area Unemployment Statistics Data |
| |
| Effective with the release of Regional and State Unemployment 2024 Annual Averages on |
| March 5, 2025, the civilian labor force and unemployment data for the states, the District |
| of Columbia, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale metropolitan division, and New York City |
| presented in tables 1 and 2 of this news release will be revised to incorporate updated |
| inputs, new population controls, re-estimation of models, and adjustment to new census |
| division and national control totals. Population controls for January 1980-April 2020 will |
| reflect new intercensal population estimates. Data in table 1 will be re-seasonally |
| adjusted as well. Both not seasonally adjusted and seasonally adjusted data will be |
| replaced back to their series beginnings in January 1976. |
| |
| Data for the five remaining modeled substate and balance-of-state areas will be |
| re-estimated back to their series beginnings in 1990 or 1994 and published with the January |
| 2025 State Employment and Unemployment news release on March 17, 2025. Both seasonally |
| adjusted and not seasonally adjusted data will be affected. Data for the Chicago- |
| Naperville-Schaumburg, IL metropolitan division; the Cleveland, OH metropolitan area; the |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA metropolitan area; and the respective balance-of-state areas |
| will reflect new geographic delineations based on Office of Management and Budget Bulletin |
| No. 23-01. More information on upcoming geography and data changes is available at |
| www.bls.gov/lau/geography-and-data-changes-in-2025.htm. |
|_______________________________________________________________________________________________|
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
| |
| Upcoming Changes to Current Employment Statistics (CES) Data |
| |
| Effective with the release of January 2025 estimates on March 17, 2025, all nonfarm payroll |
| employment estimates for states and areas presented in tables 3 and 4 of this news release |
| will be adjusted to 2024 benchmark levels. Not seasonally adjusted data beginning with April |
| 2023 and seasonally adjusted data beginning with January 2020 are subject to revision. Some |
| not seasonally adjusted and seasonally adjusted series may be revised as far back as 1990. |
| |
| Also effective with the release of January 2025 data on March 17, 2025, the CES metropolitan |
| statistical area (MSA) estimates will be updated to reflect the delineations based on the |
| 2020 Census, available at |
| www.bls.gov/bls/omb-bulletin-23-01-revised-delineations-of-metropolitan-statistical-areas.pdf.|
| |
| As a result of this update, new MSAs will be added to publication, some existing MSAs will |
| undergo name and/or compositional changes, and other existing areas will be dropped from |
| publication. For the six New England states, New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs) will be |
| discontinued, and CES will publish the areas and divisions made up of counties or equivalent |
| entities. Details of these changes will be published in the annual CES State and Area |
| benchmark article on March 17, 2025. |
| |
| More information about MSA definitions in the CES program, including current and previous |
| definitions used, is available at |
| www.bls.gov/sae/additional-resources/metropolitan-statistical-area-definitions.htm. |
|_______________________________________________________________________________________________|
Table A. States with unemployment rates significantly different
from that of the U.S., December 2024, seasonally adjusted
--------------------------------------------------------------
State | Rate(p)
--------------------------------------------------------------
United States (1) ...................| 4.1
|
Alabama .............................| 3.3
Arkansas ............................| 3.4
California ..........................| 5.5
Connecticut .........................| 3.0
District of Columbia ................| 5.5
Florida .............................| 3.4
Hawaii ..............................| 3.0
Illinois ............................| 5.2
Iowa ................................| 3.2
Kentucky ............................| 5.2
|
Maine ...............................| 3.2
Maryland ............................| 3.1
Michigan ............................| 5.0
Minnesota ...........................| 3.3
Mississippi .........................| 3.3
Montana .............................| 3.1
Nebraska ............................| 2.8
Nevada ..............................| 5.7
New Hampshire .......................| 2.6
North Dakota ........................| 2.5
|
Oklahoma ............................| 3.3
Pennsylvania ........................| 3.6
South Dakota ........................| 1.9
Utah ................................| 3.5
Vermont .............................| 2.4
Virginia ............................| 3.0
Wisconsin ...........................| 3.0
--------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Data are not preliminary.
(p) = preliminary.
Table B. States with statistically significant unemployment rate changes
from November 2024 to December 2024, seasonally adjusted
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Rate |
|-----------|-----------| Over-the-month
State | November | December | change(p)
| 2024 | 2024(p) |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama ........................| 3.1 | 3.3 | 0.2
Colorado .......................| 4.3 | 4.4 | .1
Maine ..........................| 3.1 | 3.2 | .1
Massachusetts ..................| 4.0 | 4.1 | .1
Minnesota ......................| 3.5 | 3.3 | -.2
Mississippi ....................| 3.1 | 3.3 | .2
Montana ........................| 3.2 | 3.1 | -.1
Pennsylvania ...................| 3.5 | 3.6 | .1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(p) = preliminary.
Table C. States with statistically significant unemployment rate changes
from December 2023 to December 2024, seasonally adjusted
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Rate |
|-----------|-----------| Over-the-year
State | December | December | change(p)
| 2023 | 2024(p) |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama ........................| 2.8 | 3.3 | 0.5
Arizona ........................| 4.2 | 3.8 | -.4
Arkansas .......................| 3.7 | 3.4 | -.3
California .....................| 5.1 | 5.5 | .4
Colorado .......................| 3.3 | 4.4 | 1.1
Connecticut ....................| 4.2 | 3.0 | -1.2
Delaware .......................| 4.1 | 3.7 | -.4
District of Columbia ...........| 4.9 | 5.5 | .6
Florida ........................| 3.1 | 3.4 | .3
Georgia ........................| 3.2 | 3.7 | .5
| | |
Idaho ..........................| 3.3 | 3.8 | .5
Illinois .......................| 4.7 | 5.2 | .5
Indiana ........................| 3.5 | 4.5 | 1.0
Kansas .........................| 2.6 | 3.6 | 1.0
Kentucky .......................| 4.3 | 5.2 | .9
Louisiana ......................| 4.0 | 4.4 | .4
Maryland .......................| 2.2 | 3.1 | .9
Massachusetts ..................| 3.2 | 4.1 | .9
Michigan .......................| 4.1 | 5.0 | .9
Minnesota ......................| 2.7 | 3.3 | .6
| | |
Missouri .......................| 3.3 | 3.7 | .4
Nebraska .......................| 2.5 | 2.8 | .3
Nevada .........................| 5.3 | 5.7 | .4
New Mexico .....................| 4.0 | 4.4 | .4
New York .......................| 4.6 | 4.4 | -.2
North Dakota ...................| 1.9 | 2.5 | .6
Ohio ...........................| 3.6 | 4.4 | .8
Pennsylvania ...................| 3.4 | 3.6 | .2
Rhode Island ...................| 3.4 | 4.6 | 1.2
South Carolina .................| 3.0 | 4.7 | 1.7
| | |
Texas ..........................| 3.9 | 4.2 | .3
Utah ...........................| 2.8 | 3.5 | .7
Wisconsin ......................| 3.4 | 3.0 | -.4
Wyoming ........................| 2.9 | 3.5 | .6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(p) = preliminary.
Table D. States with statistically significant employment changes from
November 2024 to December 2024, seasonally adjusted
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | Over-the-month change(p)
State | November | December |---------------------------
| 2024 | 2024(p) | Level | Percent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Missouri .....................| 3,074,100 | 3,085,300 | 11,200 | 0.4
Texas ........................| 14,281,200 | 14,318,700 | 37,500 | .3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(p) = preliminary.
Table E. States with statistically significant employment changes from
December 2023 to December 2024, seasonally adjusted
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | Over-the-year change(p)
State | December | December |---------------------------
| 2023 | 2024(p) | Level | Percent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama ......................| 2,181,000 | 2,220,500 | 39,500 | 1.8
Alaska .......................| 334,100 | 341,700 | 7,600 | 2.3
Arizona ......................| 3,228,700 | 3,283,500 | 54,800 | 1.7
Arkansas .....................| 1,355,200 | 1,379,800 | 24,600 | 1.8
California ...................| 17,948,900 | 18,129,400 | 180,500 | 1.0
Colorado .....................| 2,961,400 | 3,010,000 | 48,600 | 1.6
Florida ......................| 9,865,800 | 10,013,700 | 147,900 | 1.5
Georgia ......................| 4,934,500 | 4,994,900 | 60,400 | 1.2
Hawaii .......................| 632,600 | 643,900 | 11,300 | 1.8
Idaho ........................| 855,500 | 886,600 | 31,100 | 3.6
| | | |
Illinois .....................| 6,100,600 | 6,156,600 | 56,000 | .9
Indiana ......................| 3,260,000 | 3,308,400 | 48,400 | 1.5
Kansas .......................| 1,449,600 | 1,468,000 | 18,400 | 1.3
Kentucky .....................| 2,023,200 | 2,051,900 | 28,700 | 1.4
Maryland .....................| 2,735,400 | 2,773,800 | 38,400 | 1.4
Michigan .....................| 4,465,900 | 4,508,800 | 42,900 | 1.0
Minnesota ....................| 3,000,200 | 3,039,600 | 39,400 | 1.3
Missouri .....................| 3,000,600 | 3,085,300 | 84,700 | 2.8
Montana ......................| 524,400 | 536,600 | 12,200 | 2.3
Nebraska .....................| 1,057,900 | 1,078,500 | 20,600 | 1.9
| | | |
New Hampshire ................| 704,700 | 719,000 | 14,300 | 2.0
New York .....................| 9,762,500 | 9,895,500 | 133,000 | 1.4
North Carolina ...............| 4,965,600 | 5,050,700 | 85,100 | 1.7
North Dakota .................| 440,600 | 451,900 | 11,300 | 2.6
Ohio .........................| 5,630,100 | 5,691,500 | 61,400 | 1.1
Oklahoma .....................| 1,769,200 | 1,800,500 | 31,300 | 1.8
Pennsylvania .................| 6,115,100 | 6,229,800 | 114,700 | 1.9
South Carolina ...............| 2,336,600 | 2,401,000 | 64,400 | 2.8
Tennessee ....................| 3,297,800 | 3,343,200 | 45,400 | 1.4
Texas ........................| 14,034,500 | 14,318,700 | 284,200 | 2.0
| | | |
Utah .........................| 1,738,300 | 1,782,700 | 44,400 | 2.6
Virginia .....................| 4,191,300 | 4,268,200 | 76,900 | 1.8
Washington ...................| 3,630,900 | 3,678,500 | 47,600 | 1.3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(p) = preliminary.
United States Department of Labor
