July 21, 2009 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

State unemployment rates: June 2009

Michigan again reported the highest jobless rate, 15.2 percent, in June. Before June, the last State to have an unemployment rate of 15.0 percent or higher was West Virginia, in March 1984.

States with the highest and lowest unemployment rates and U.S. unemployment rate, June 2009
[Chart data—TXT]

The States with the next highest rates were Rhode Island, 12.4 percent, Oregon, 12.2 percent, and South Carolina, 12.1 percent. The Rhode Island and South Carolina rates were the highest on record for those States.

North Dakota registered the lowest unemployment rate in June, 4.2 percent.

The national unemployment rate was 9.5 percent in June 2009.

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. More State unemployment statistics are available in "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment: June 2009" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL 09-0815.

 

 

Of interest

Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009

The most recent recession in the United States began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, though many of the statistics that describe the U.S. economy have yet to return to their pre-recession values. In this Spotlight, we present BLS data that compare the recent recession to previous recessions. Read more »