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South Dakota and New Hampshire had the lowest jobless rates in June, 2.7 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively. Alaska had the highest unemployment rate, 6.7 percent. Twenty-one states had unemployment rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 4.9 percent, 14 states and the District of Columbia had higher rates, and 15 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.
In June, 6 states had statistically significant unemployment rate increases: Colorado (+0.4 percentage point); Nevada and Oregon (+0.3 point each); and California, Maine, and South Dakota (+0.2 point each). The only significant rate decrease occurred in North Carolina (-0.2 percentage point). The remaining 43 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.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia had statistically significant unemployment rate decreases from June 2015. The largest declines were in Tennessee (-1.6 percentage points) and Arkansas (-1.5 points). The only significant over-the-year rate increases occurred in Wyoming (+1.5 percentage points) and North Dakota (+0.4 point).
These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. Data for June 2016 are preliminary and may be revised. The data are seasonally adjusted. For more information, see “Regional and State Employment and Unemployment — June 2016” (HTML) (PDF).
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Unemployment rate highest in Alaska, lowest in South Dakota in June 2016 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/unemployment-rate-highest-in-alaska-lowest-in-south-dakota-in-june-2016.htm (visited October 31, 2024).