State unemployment, 2004 to 2014

State unemployment rates were generally lower in April. Forty-three states had unemployment rate decreases, two states had increases, and five states and the District of Columbia had no change. Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, one state had an increase, and two states had no change. The national jobless rate fell to 6.3 percent from March and was 1.2 percentage points lower than in April 2013.

 

Rhode Island had the highest unemployment rate among the states in April 2014, 8.3 percent. North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate, 2.6 percent. In total, 19 states had unemployment rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 6.3 percent, 7 states and the District of Columbia had measurably higher rates, and 24 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.

In April, Illinois and Nevada had the largest over-the-month unemployment rate declines (-0.5 percentage point each). Eighteen additional states had smaller but also statistically significant rate decreases. The remaining 30 states and the District of Columbia had jobless rates that were not measurably different from those of a month earlier, though some had changes that were at least as large numerically as the significant changes.

South Carolina (-2.6 percentage points) and North Carolina (-2.2 points) had the largest unemployment rate declines from April 2013. Thirty-one additional states had smaller but also statistically significant rate decreases over the year. The remaining 17 states and the District of Columbia had rates that were not appreciably different from those of a year earlier.

Unemployment data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. To learn more, see "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment – April 2014" (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL‑14‑0813.