Nevada, Rhode Island Post Unemployment Rates of 10.2% in December

For Nevada, the December state unemployment report from the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) provided some good and bad news.

The bad news? Nevada tied Rhode Island for the nation's highest state unemployment rate in December, as both states posted jobless rates of 10.2%.

The good news? Nevada's unemployment rate dropped precipitously over the course of the year. In addition, Nevada could very well lose the title of the state with the nation's highest unemployment rate in January if the trend continues. Nevada started 2012 with an unemployment rate of 12.7%, and fell all the way down to 10.2% by the end of the year. According to the BLS, Nevada had 138,772 unemployed people and a labor force of 1,358,300 in the last month of 2012.

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According to the BLS, the states (Puerto Rico included, as the BLS includes them in the numbers) with the highest unemployment rates in December were:

Puerto Rico with a rate of 14.0%
Nevada with a rate of 10.2%
Rhode Island with a rate of 10.2%
California with a rate of 9.8%
New Jersey with a rate of 9.6%

On the flip side, the states with the lowest unemployment rates in December were:

North Dakota with a rate of 3.2%
Nebraska with a rate of 3.7%
South Dakota with a rate of 4.4%
Iowa with a rate of 4.9%
Wyoming with a rate of 4.9%

In case you were curious, the lowest unemployment rate on record is 2.1%, and that record is held by both Connecticut (September, October 2000) and New Hampshire (September, October, November of 1986).

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Source: Historical State Unemployment Rates

Filed under: General Knowledge