For Immediate Release: Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Contact: Karen Conner or Eve Turow, news@epi.org 202-775-8810
Today’s state jobs report provides further evidence that a full economic recovery is still far away: 27 states lost jobs in June. The losses are dominated by temporary workers who were hired to do the 2010 census – nationally, 225,000 of these jobs were cut last month, while the private sector added just 83,000 jobs. However, looking at longer term trends, which are less affected by these temporary hires, at the national level there are 880,000 more jobs today than there were six months ago. Over this time period, 45 states and the District of Columbia saw job growth. Only Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont lost jobs during this period. Furthermore, the past six months have seen unemployment rate decreases in 33 states and the District of Columbia.
“In short, the labor market is recovering, but for the 14.6 million people who are currently looking for jobs, it is a painfully slow recovery, and there is still a long way to go before employment reaches pre-recession levels,” said EPI Policy Analyst Kai Filion. “Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have double-digit unemployment rates. In many places, the depth of job loss is staggering – since the recession began, Nevada and Arizona have lost 13.4 and 10.0 percent of their jobs, respectively. If we include population growth, these numbers are even worse: the nation still needs to gain 10.6 million jobs to return to a pre-recession employment level.”
More state data are available on EPI’s interactive web site EconomyTrack.org
Unemployment Rate by State
June 2010 compared to start of recession, Dec. 2010
State Dec 07 Jun 10
|
Alabama |
3.9% |
10.3% |
|
Alaska |
6.2% |
7.9% |
|
Arizona |
4.3% |
9.6% |
|
Arkansas |
5.0% |
7.5% |
|
California |
5.8% |
12.3% |
|
Colorado |
4.3% |
8.0% |
|
Connecticut |
4.9% |
8.8% |
|
Delaware |
3.8% |
8.5% |
|
District of Columbia |
5.5% |
10.0% |
|
Florida |
4.7% |
11.4% |
|
Georgia |
5.1% |
10.0% |
|
Hawaii |
3.0% |
6.3% |
|
Idaho |
3.5% |
8.8% |
|
Illinois |
5.5% |
10.4% |
|
Indiana |
4.6% |
10.1% |
|
Iowa |
3.9% |
6.8% |
|
Kansas |
4.0% |
6.5% |
|
Kentucky |
5.5% |
10.0% |
|
Louisiana |
3.8% |
7.0% |
|
Maine |
4.7% |
8.0% |
|
Maryland |
3.5% |
7.1% |
|
Massachusetts |
4.4% |
9.0% |
|
Michigan |
7.1% |
13.2% |
|
Minnesota |
4.7% |
6.8% |
|
Mississippi |
6.1% |
11.0% |
|
Missouri |
5.3% |
9.1% |
|
Montana |
3.9% |
7.3% |
|
Nebraska |
2.9% |
4.8% |
|
Nevada |
5.2% |
14.2% |
|
New Hampshire |
3.4% |
5.9% |
|
New Jersey |
4.5% |
9.6% |
|
New Mexico |
3.6% |
8.2% |
|
New York |
4.7% |
8.2% |
|
North Carolina |
4.9% |
10.0% |
|
North Dakota |
3.0% |
3.6% |
|
Ohio |
5.6% |
10.5% |
|
Oklahoma |
3.6% |
6.8% |
|
Oregon |
5.2% |
10.5% |
|
Pennsylvania |
4.5% |
9.2% |
|
Rhode Island |
6.0% |
12.0% |
|
South Carolina |
5.6% |
10.7% |
|
South Dakota |
2.8% |
4.5% |
|
Tennessee |
5.5% |
10.1% |
|
Texas |
4.4% |
8.2% |
|
Utah |
3.1% |
7.2% |
|
Vermont |
4.0% |
6.0% |
|
Virginia |
3.2% |
7.0% |
|
Washington |
4.6% |
8.9% |
|
West Virginia |
4.0% |
8.5% |
|
Wisconsin |
4.5% |
7.9% |
|
Wyoming |
2.8% |
6.8% |