State employment-population ratios in 2011

West Virginia again reported the lowest employment-population ratio among the states, 49.5 percent. West Virginia has had the lowest employment-population ratio each year since the series began in 1976.

Five states registered the lowest employment-population ratios in their series in 2011: California, 56.0 percent; Hawaii, 58.6 percent; Nevada, 57.2 percent; New Mexico, 54.3 percent; and North Carolina, 56.2 percent.

In 2011, Utah registered the largest statistically significant employment-population ratio decline among the states (−1.0 percentage point). The next largest occurred in Arizona (−0.9 percentage point), Nevada and New Mexico (−0.8 percentage point each) and New York (−0.5 point). The District of Columbia also reported a measurable decline (−1.3 percentage points). Virginia posted the only significant ratio increase among states (+0.2 percentage point). The remaining 44 states had employment-population ratios that were not significantly different from those of a year earlier.

These employment data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. The employment-population ratio is the proportion of the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over that is employed. For more information, see "Regional and State Unemployment — 2011 Annual Averages" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-0371.