State unemployment rates little changed in June

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in June. Twenty-seven states recorded unemployment rate increases, 11 states and the District of Columbia posted rate decreases, and 12 states had no change. The national jobless rate, at 8.2 percent, was unchanged from May but 0.9 percentage point lower than in June 2011.

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Nevada continued to record the highest unemployment rate among the states, 11.6 percent in June. Rhode Island and California posted the next highest rates, 10.9 and 10.7 percent, respectively. North Dakota again registered the lowest jobless rate, 2.9 percent, followed by Nebraska, 3.8 percent. In total, 25 states reported jobless rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 8.2 percent, 8 states had measurably higher rates, and 17 states and the District of Columbia had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.

Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia reported statistically significant unemployment rate decreases from June 2011, the largest of which occurred in Nevada (-2.2 percentage points), Florida (-2.1 points), and Michigan and Mississippi (-2.0 points each). New York experienced the only statistically significant over-the-year increase in its unemployment rate (+0.7 percentage point).

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. Data for the most recent month are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment — June 2012" (HTML) (PDF).

• Changes in nonfarm payroll by state, June 2012