State employment and unemployment, October 2011

From October 2010 to October 2011, 23 states experienced statistically significant changes in employment, 22 of which were increases. The largest increase occurred in California (+239,100), followed by Texas (+231,600), and Florida (+93,900). The only state with an over-the-year statistically significant decrease in employment was Georgia (−33,100).

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Among those states with statistically significant employment changes from October 2010 to October 2011, the largest over-the-year percentage increases in employment occurred in North Dakota (+4.9 percent), followed by Oklahoma (+3.1 percent), and Utah (+2.6 percent). Georgia experienced the only decrease (−0.9 percent).

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Nevada continued to report the highest unemployment rate among the states, 13.4 percent in October. California posted the next highest rate, 11.7 percent. North Dakota registered the lowest jobless rate, 3.5 percent, followed by Nebraska, 4.2 percent.

In total, 26 states reported jobless rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 9.0 percent, 10 states and the District of Columbia had measurably higher rates, and 14 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics (State and Metro Area) and Local Area Unemployment Statistics programs. Data for the most recent month are preliminary and subject to revision. To learn more, see "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment — October 2011" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-1672.