Technical information:
  Employment:   (202) 691-6559        USDL 08-0670
       http://www.bls.gov/sae/
  Unemployment: (202) 691-6392
       http://www.bls.gov/lau/        For release:  10:00 A.M. (EDT)
Media contact:  (202) 691-5902        Friday, May 16, 2008


      REGIONAL AND STATE EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT:  APRIL 2008


   Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in April.
Overall, 28 states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-
month unemployment rate decreases, 14 states registered increases, and
8 states had no change, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.
Department of Labor reported today.  Over the year, jobless rates were
up in 35 states and the District of Columbia, down in 13 states, and
unchanged in 2 states.  The national unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent,
was little changed between March and April, but was up from 4.5 percent
a year earlier.

   Between March and April, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 10
states and the District of Columbia, decreased in 39 states, and was
unchanged in 1 state (Missouri).  The largest employment increases
were recorded in Texas (+15,400), South Carolina (+4,500), Colorado
(+3,800), and Pennsylvania (+2,300).  Colorado, New Hampshire, and
South Carolina posted the largest over-the-month percentage increase
in employment (+0.2 percent each), followed by Alaska, Idaho, Texas,
and Utah (+0.1 percent each).  The largest employment decreases occur-
red in Florida (-25,300), Michigan (-18,600), North Carolina (-14,700),
and Georgia (-14,200).  Hawaii experienced the largest over-the-month
percentage decline in employment (-1.0 percent), followed by Maine,
Vermont, and Wisconsin (-0.5 percent each).  Over the year, nonfarm
employment increased in 41 states and the District of Columbia and
decreased in 9 states.  The largest over-the-year percentage gains
in employment were reported in Wyoming (+3.1 percent), Texas (+2.5
percent), Utah (+2.1 percent), and New Hampshire (+2.0 percent).  The
largest over-the-year percentage declines in employment occurred in
Rhode Island (-1.8 percent), Michigan (-1.7 percent), Florida (-0.8
percent), and Wisconsin (-0.6 percent).

Regional Unemployment (Seasonally Adjusted)

   In April, the South and Northeast again recorded the lowest unem-
ployment rates among the regions, 4.6 and 4.7 percent, respectively.
The West posted the highest rate, 5.3 percent, followed by the Midwest
at 5.1 percent.  No region had a statistically significant unemployment
rate change from a month earlier.  The West registered the largest over-
the-year rate increase among the regions (+0.8 percentage point).  The
Northeast and South also reported statistically significant jobless rate
changes from a year earlier (+0.4 percentage point each).  (See table 1.)

   Among the nine geographic divisions, the Mountain continued to report
the lowest unemployment rate, 4.0 percent in April, while the Pacific
again recorded the highest rate, 5.9 percent.  The New England division
registered the only statistically significant jobless rate change from
March (-0.3 percentage point).  The West South Central division had the
only significant rate decrease from a year earlier (-0.2 percentage point),
while five divisions posted significant over-the-year rate increases:  the
Pacific (+0.9 point); South Atlantic (+0.8 point); and East South Central,
Middle Atlantic, and Mountain (+0.5 point each).



                                   - 2 -



State Unemployment (Seasonally Adjusted)

   In April, South Dakota and Wyoming recorded the lowest unemployment
rates, 2.6 percent each.  Michigan continued to report the highest job-
less rate, 6.9 percent.  The states with the next highest rates were
Alaska, 6.7 percent; California, 6.2 percent; and Rhode Island, 6.1 per-
cent.  The District of Columbia had an unemployment rate of 6.0 percent.
Overall, 21 states registered unemployment rates that were significantly
below the U.S. rate, 6 states and the District of Columbia recorded mea-
surably higher rates, and 23 states had rates that were statistically
little different from that of the nation.  (See tables A and 3.)

   Connecticut and Wisconsin reported statistically significant over-the-
month jobless rate decreases in April (-0.6 and -0.5 percentage point, re-
spectively).  Montana registered the only significant rate increase from
the prior month (+0.2 percentage point).  The remaining 47 states and the
District of Columbia recorded April unemployment rates that were not appre-
ciably different from those of a month earlier, even though some had changes
that were at least as large numerically as the significant changes.

   Oklahoma continued to report the largest over-the-year jobless rate 
decrease (-1.2 percentage points).  Six additional states had smaller,
but also statistically significant, rate decreases.  Florida, Nevada,
and Rhode Island registered the largest unemployment rate increases
from April 2007 (+1.1 percentage points each), followed by California
and Georgia (+1.0 point each).  Seventeen additional states also had
statistically significant over-the-year rate increases.  The remaining
21 states and the District of Columbia recorded jobless rates that
were not appreciably different from those of a year earlier.  (See
table B.)

Nonfarm Payroll Employment (Seasonally Adjusted)

   Between March and April, seven states reported statistically significant
changes in employment, all of which were decreases.  The largest losses were
in Florida (-25,300), Michigan (-18,600), North Carolina (-14,700), and
Georgia (-14,200).  (See tables C and 5.)

   Over the year, nine states posted statistically significant changes in
employment.  All but one reported gains.  The largest employment gains oc-
curred in Texas (+262,000), North Carolina (+45,900), Washington (+43,800),
and Colorado (+41,700).  The only statistically significant over-the-year
decline was reported in Michigan (-72,100).  Two states recorded statis-
tically significant gains in employment that were less than 15,000:  New
Hampshire (+13,100) and Wyoming (+8,900).  (See table D.)


                    ______________________________


   The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment release for April 
is scheduled to be issued on Wednesday, May 28.  The Regional and
State Employment and Unemployment release for May is scheduled to be
issued on Friday, June 20.



                                   - 3 -


      -------------------------------------------------------------
     |                                                             |
     |                     Hurricane Katrina                       |
     |                                                             |
     |   For April, BLS and its state partners continued to make   |
     |modifications to the usual estimation procedures for the     |
     |LAUS program to reflect the impact of Hurricane Katrina on   |
     |the labor force statistics in affected areas.  These modi-   |
     |fications included:  (1) modifying the state population con- |
     |trols to account for displacement due to Katrina; (2) de-    |
     |veloping labor force estimates for the New Orleans-Metairie- |
     |Kenner metropolitan area using an alternative to the model-  |
     |based method; and (3) not publishing labor force estimates   |
     |for the months immediately following the hurricane for the   |
     |parishes within the New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner metropolitan |
     |area and cities within those parishes, where the quality of  |
     |input data was severely compromised by the hurricane.        |
     |                                                             |
     |   For more information on LAUS procedures and estimates for |
     |April 2008, see Hurricane Information:  Katrina and Rita on  |
     |the BLS Web site at http://www.bls.gov/Katrina/home.htm or   |
     |call (202) 691-6392.                                         |
     |                                                             |
      -------------------------------------------------------------



Table A.  States with unemployment rates significantly differ-
ent from that of the U.S., April 2008, seasonally adjusted
--------------------------------------------------------------
              State              |            Rate(p)         
--------------------------------------------------------------
United States (1) ...............|             5.0            
                                 |                            
Alaska ..........................|             6.7            
Arizona .........................|             3.9            
California ......................|             6.2            
Colorado ........................|             4.4            
Delaware ........................|             3.7            
District of Columbia ............|             6.0            
Hawaii ..........................|             3.3            
Idaho ...........................|             3.1            
Iowa ............................|             3.5            
Kansas ..........................|             4.0            
                                 |                            
Maryland ........................|             3.7            
Massachusetts ...................|             4.1            
Michigan ........................|             6.9            
Montana .........................|             3.8            
Nebraska ........................|             3.1            
Nevada ..........................|             5.7            
New Hampshire ...................|             3.8            
New Mexico ......................|             3.5            
North Dakota ....................|             3.1            
Oklahoma.........................|             3.2            
                                 |                            
Rhode Island ....................|             6.1            
South Carolina ..................|             5.9            
South Dakota ....................|             2.6            
Texas ...........................|             4.1            
Utah ............................|             3.1            
Virginia ........................|             3.5            
Wisconsin .......................|             4.3            
Wyoming .........................|             2.6            
--------------------------------------------------------------

   1 Data are not preliminary.
   p = preliminary.



                                   - 4 -


Table B.  States with statistically significant unemployment rate
changes from April 2007 to April 2008, seasonally adjusted

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                |          Rate         |               
                                |-----------------------| Over-the-year 
             State              |   April   |  April    | rate change(p)
                                |   2007    |  2008(p)  |               
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama ........................|     3.4   |    4.0    |       0.6     
Alaska .........................|     6.0   |    6.7    |        .7     
Arkansas .......................|     5.3   |    4.7    |       -.6     
California .....................|     5.2   |    6.2    |       1.0     
Colorado .......................|     3.6   |    4.4    |        .8     
Florida ........................|     3.8   |    4.9    |       1.1     
Georgia ........................|     4.3   |    5.3    |       1.0     
Hawaii .........................|     2.5   |    3.3    |        .8     
Idaho ..........................|     2.7   |    3.1    |        .4     
Illinois .......................|     4.8   |    5.4    |        .6     
                                |           |           |               
Iowa ...........................|     3.7   |    3.5    |       -.2     
Massachusetts ..................|     4.6   |    4.1    |       -.5     
Montana ........................|     3.1   |    3.8    |        .7     
Nebraska .......................|     2.8   |    3.1    |        .3     
Nevada .........................|     4.6   |    5.7    |       1.1     
New Jersey .....................|     4.3   |    5.0    |        .7     
New York .......................|     4.4   |    4.7    |        .3     
North Carolina .................|     4.7   |    5.4    |        .7     
Oklahoma .......................|     4.4   |    3.2    |      -1.2     
Pennsylvania ...................|     4.3   |    5.0    |        .7     
                                |           |           |               
Rhode Island ...................|     5.0   |    6.1    |       1.1     
South Dakota ...................|     3.1   |    2.6    |       -.5     
Tennessee ......................|     4.5   |    5.4    |        .9     
Texas ..........................|     4.4   |    4.1    |       -.3     
Utah ...........................|     2.5   |    3.1    |        .6     
Vermont ........................|     4.1   |    4.5    |        .4     
Virginia .......................|     2.9   |    3.5    |        .6     
West Virginia ..................|     4.5   |    5.0    |        .5     
Wisconsin ......................|     5.1   |    4.3    |       -.8     
------------------------------------------------------------------------

   p = preliminary.



                                   - 5 -



Table C.  States with statistically significant employment changes from
March 2008 to April 2008, seasonally adjusted
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
                              |    March   |    April   |Over-the-month
              State           |    2008    |   2008(p)  |   change(p)  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Florida ......................|  8,012,400 |  7,987,100 |     -25,300  
Georgia ......................|  4,176,400 |  4,162,200 |     -14,200  
Hawaii .......................|    630,200 |    624,000 |      -6,200  
Michigan .....................|  4,215,800 |  4,197,200 |     -18,600  
North Carolina ...............|  4,183,100 |  4,168,400 |     -14,700  
Tennessee ....................|  2,796,300 |  2,785,000 |     -11,300  
Wisconsin ....................|  2,871,000 |  2,857,400 |     -13,600  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

   p = preliminary.





Table D.  States with statistically significant employment changes
from April 2007 to April 2008, seasonally adjusted
----------------------------------------------------------------------
                             |    April   |   April   | Over-the-year 
           State             |    2007    |   2008(p) |    change(p)  
-----------------------------|----------------------------------------
Colorado ....................|  2,322,500 | 2,364,200 |      41,700   
Michigan ....................|  4,269,300 | 4,197,200 |     -72,100   
New Hampshire ...............|    643,300 |   656,400 |      13,100   
North Carolina ..............|  4,122,500 | 4,168,400 |      45,900   
Oklahoma ....................|  1,557,500 | 1,580,600 |      23,100   
Texas .......................| 10,292,800 |10,554,800 |     262,000   
Utah ........................|  1,246,800 | 1,272,800 |      26,000   
Washington ..................|  2,918,600 | 2,962,400 |      43,800   
Wyoming .....................|    285,500 |   294,400 |       8,900   
----------------------------------------------------------------------

   p = preliminary.