State unemployment rates, March 2011

Nevada continued to register the highest unemployment rate among the states in March, at 13.2 percent. The states with the next highest rates were California (12.0 percent), Florida (11.1 percent), Rhode Island (11.0 percent), and Michigan (10.3 percent).

[Chart data]

North Dakota continued to have the lowest unemployment rate among the states (3.6 percent), followed by Nebraska (4.2 percent), South Dakota (4.9 percent), New Hampshire (5.2 percent) and Vermont (5.4 percent).

In total, 22 states posted jobless rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 8.8 percent, 10 states recorded measurably higher rates, and 18 states and the District of Columbia had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.

Over the year (March 2010 to March 2011), Michigan recorded the largest jobless rate decrease (−3.0 percentage points), followed by Illinois and Indiana (−2.2 and −2.1 points, respectively). Fifteen additional states had smaller but also statistically significant decreases from a year ago. The remaining 32 states and the District of Columbia registered jobless rates that were not appreciably different from those of a year earlier.

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent month are preliminary. To learn more, see "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment – March 2011" (HTML) (PDF), new release USDL-11-0553.