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All states and the District of Columbia recorded statistically significant increases in their jobless rates from December 2008 to December 2009. The largest of these increases were in Nevada and West Virginia (+4.6 percentage points each), closely followed by Alabama (+4.5 points) and Michigan (+4.4 points). The smallest rate increases occurred in Minnesota and Nebraska (+0.8 percentage point each).
In December 2009, Michigan again recorded the highest unemployment rate among the states, 14.6 percent. The states with the next highest rates were Nevada, 13.0 percent; Rhode Island, 12.9 percent; and South Carolina, 12.6 percent. North Dakota continued to register the lowest jobless rate, 4.4 percent in December, followed by Nebraska and South Dakota, 4.7 percent each.
These data are from the BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. See "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment – December 2009" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-10-0068, to learn more.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, State unemployment rate increases, December 2008–December 2009 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2010/ted_20100128.htm (visited December 03, 2024).