Carolinas and Indiana have largest unemployment rate declines, March 2013 to March 2014

Among the states, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Indiana had the largest unemployment rate declines from March 2013 to March 2014. In South Carolina, the unemployment rate declined from 8.0 percent in March 2013 to 5.5 percent in March 2014—a decline of 2.5 percentage points. The jobless rate in North Carolina declined by 2.2 percentage points (from 8.5 percent to 6.3 percent) over the same period. In Indiana, the unemployment rate decreased 2.0 percentage points (from 7.9 percent to 5.9 percent).

In addition to the Carolinas and Indiana, there were 22 other states that had smaller but also statistically significant rate decreases over the March 2013 to March 2014 period. The remaining 25 states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rates that were not appreciably different from those of a year earlier.

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 — March 2014" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-14-0606.