New Hampshire and South Dakota had lowest jobless rates in September 2016

New Hampshire and South Dakota had the lowest jobless rates in September 2016, 2.9 percent each. The unemployment rate for New Hampshire was 0.7 percentage point higher than its historical low set in March 1988 (2.2 percent). The rate for South Dakota was 0.5 percentage point higher than its historical low set in July 2000 (2.4 percent). Alaska had the highest unemployment rate, 6.9 percent. This was 4.3 percentage points lower than its historical high set in August 1986 (11.2 percent) and 0.7 percentage point higher than its historical low set in June 2007 (6.2 percent).

In September 2016, 20 states had unemployment rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 5.0 percent, 9 states and the District of Columbia had higher rates, and 21 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.

Seven states had statistically significant unemployment rate decreases from August to September 2016, the largest of which occurred in Nevada (−0.5 percentage point). The only significant rate decrease occurred in New York (0.2 percentage point). The remaining 42 states and the District of Columbia had jobless rates that were not significantly different from those of a month earlier, though some had changes that were at least as large numerically as the significant changes.

Six states had statistically significant unemployment rate decreases from September 2015. The largest decline was in Massachusetts (−1.2 percentage points). Four states had significant over-the-year rate increases, the largest of which were in Oklahoma and Wyoming (1.0 percentage point each).

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. Data for September 2016 are preliminary and may be revised. The data are seasonally adjusted. Series histories for each state begin in January 1976. For more information, see “Regional and State Employment and Unemployment — September 2016” (HTML) (PDF).