State unemployment rates, July 2012

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed or slightly higher in July. The national jobless rate, at 8.3 percent, was essentially unchanged from June but 0.8 percentage point lower than in July 2011.

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Eighteen states had statistically significant over-the-month unemployment rate changes in July, all of which were increases. The largest over-the-month increases in unemployment occurred in Alabama and Alaska (+0.5 percentage point each). The remaining 32 states and the District of Columbia recorded jobless rates that were not measurably different from those of a month earlier.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia reported statistically significant unemployment rate decreases from July 2011, the largest of which occurred in Florida, Mississippi, and Nevada (-1.8 percentage points each). New York experienced the only statistically significant over-the-year increase in its unemployment rate (+0.9 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 — July 2012" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-12-1649.