7 States With the Highest Unemployment
The recovery from the Great Recession has been unequal, in terms of where job growth has come back the most. These seven states continue to lag.
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With U.S. unemployment at 5.8% in November, the country is back where it was in July of 2008, before the financial crisis hit. In November of 2008, the national unemployment rate hit 6.8%, on its way to 10% in October of the following year. The recovery has been unequal, though, in terms of where job growth has come back the most.
We have looked at the winners — that is, the states with the lowest November unemployment rates — and here is a list of the seven states that continue to lag:
- District of Columbia: 7.4%, down from 7.8% in November 2013; civilian labor force down 49,100 year-over-year to 381,600
- Mississippi: 7.3%, from 8.0% a year ago; labor force down 23,100 to 1.247 million
- California: 7.2%, from 8.4% in November 2013; labor force up 265,000 to 18.822 million
- Georgia: 7.2%, from 7.6% a year ago; labor force up 17,100 to 4.756 million
- Rhode Island: 7.1%, from 9.4%; labor force up 2,400 to 553,600
- Oregon: 7.0%, from 7.3% in November 2013; labor force up 41,200 to 1.962 million
- Nevada: 6.9%, from 9.1% a year ago; labor force up 3,500 to 1.369 million
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also noted two metro areas where unemployment remains significantly higher than the national average: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, where the unemployment rate is now 8.0%, and the Detroit-Warren-Livonia metro area, where unemployment currently runs at 7.9%.
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Notes: BLS methodology and unemployment by state.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.