The headline from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report on state unemployment for February is that Nebraska became the state with the lowest unemployment (2.7%), passing perennial leader North Dakota (2.9%). Apparently, the demise of fracking, accelerated by low oil prices, has caught up to the state that relies so much on energy. While the two states vie for the prize of lowest unemployment, six other states have rates that have dropped below 4%, against the national average of 5.5%, according to the BLS.
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Most of the states are clustered in the Great Plains or states adjacent to them, with the exception of New Hampshire (3.9%) and Vermont (3.9%). None has a dense population, although the effect of that is not certain. The unemployment rate in Utah is 3.4%. In North Dakota it is 2.9%, while in Minnesota the rate is 3.7%. And in Idaho it is 3.9%.
Oddly enough, one of the sparsely populated states in the Plains with low unemployment relies on tech. For reasons hard to figure, firms like Micron Technology Inc. (NYSE: MU) have their homes in Idaho. At the far end of the economic scale, Idaho’s jobs rate is due in large part to potatoes. Agriculture success helps all the Great Plains states to some extent. Although Utah is further south, it relies on agriculture, mining and energy as well.
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Harder to peg is the reason for low unemployment in Vermont and New Hampshire, adjacent to one another. Vermont is small enough that government jobs provide a large portion of employment. It is hard to see that being true in populous states with larger workforces and more diverse populations. Like Plains states, agriculture dominates the New Hampshire economy.
The trend in these states will not be matched by others. Too many have large cities where unemployment rates have stayed high. Yet others have a wide enough spread of industries so that some are bound to be slow at any given time.
These eight states are too small in population to have much effect on the national jobs rate. That does not matter to their residents.
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