22 states had unemployment rate decreases from September 2016 to September 2017

Twenty-two states had statistically significant unemployment rate decreases from September 2016 to September 2017. The largest decreases occurred in Alabama and Tennessee (−2.2 percentage points and −1.9 points, respectively). Florida, Rhode Island, and Wyoming were the only other states that had unemployment rate decreases of more than 1.0 percentage point over the past 12 months.

The only over-the-year rate increase was in South Dakota (+0.5 percentage point).

North Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate in September 2017, 2.4 percent, closely followed by Colorado and Hawaii, 2.5 percent each. New Hampshire, Idaho, Nebraska, Vermont, and Tennessee also had unemployment rates of 3.0 percent or lower.

Alaska had the highest jobless rate, 7.2 percent, followed by New Mexico and the District of Columbia.

The rates in Idaho (2.8 percent) and Tennessee (3.0 percent) set new series lows in September. (All state unemployment data series begin in 1976.)

The state unemployment data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent month are preliminary. To learn more, see "State Employment and Unemployment — September 2017" (HTML) (PDF). For more charts and tables related to state employment and unemployment, see the State unemployment chart package.