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Illinois has the largest unemployment rate decline, December 2013 to December 2014

January 30, 2015

From December 2013 to December 2014, thirty states had statistically significant unemployment rate declines; the largest were in Illinois (-2.7 percentage points) and Rhode Island (-2.5 points). The only statistically significant increase occurred in Louisiana (+1.3 percentage points). The remaining 19 states and the District of Columbia had rates that were little different from a year earlier.

States with statistically significant unemployment rate changes from December 2013 to December 2014, seasonally adjusted
State December 2013 December 2014 (p) Over-the-year change (p)

Illinois

8.9 6.2 -2.7

Rhode Island

9.3 6.8 -2.5

Ohio

7.1 4.8 -2.3

Colorado

6.2 4.0 -2.2

Kentucky

7.9 5.7 -2.2

Nevada

9.0 6.8 -2.2

Michigan

8.3 6.3 -2.0

Pennsylvania

6.8 4.8 -2.0

Idaho

5.6 3.7 -1.9

Arkansas

7.4 5.7 -1.7

Massachusetts

7.1 5.5 -1.6

North Carolina

6.9 5.5 -1.4

Texas

6.0 4.6 -1.4

California

8.3 7.0 -1.3

Montana

5.4 4.2 -1.2

New Hampshire

5.2 4.0 -1.2

New York

7.0 5.8 -1.2

Oklahoma

5.4 4.2 -1.2

Minnesota

4.7 3.6 -1.1

Tennessee

7.7 6.6 -1.1

Wisconsin

6.3 5.2 -1.1

Connecticut

7.4 6.4 -1.0

Indiana

6.8 5.8 -1.0

New Jersey

7.2 6.2 -1.0

Maine

6.4 5.5 -0.9

Delaware

6.2 5.4 -0.8

Florida

6.3 5.6 -0.7

Hawaii

4.7 4.0 -0.7

Kansas

4.9 4.2 -0.7

Nebraska

3.6 2.9 -0.7

Louisiana

5.4 6.7 1.3
Footnotes:

(p) Preliminary

Mississippi had the highest unemployment rate among the states in December, 7.2 percent. The District of Columbia had a rate of 7.3 percent. North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate, 2.8 percent. Nineteen states had unemployment rates significantly lower than the U.S. rate of 5.6 percent. Ten states and the District of Columbia had measurably higher rates, and 21 states had rates that were little different from that of the nation.

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 — December 2014" (HTML) (PDF).

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Illinois has the largest unemployment rate decline, December 2013 to December 2014 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/illinois-has-the-largest-unemployment-rate-decline-december-2013-to-december-2014.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

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