The national unemployment rate for June was 5.3%, essentially unchanged from May. And the lowest unemployment rate in the country was less than half that, 2.6% in Nebraska. No other state checked in with an unemployment rate below 3%. In June of last year Nebraska’s unemployment rate was 3.3%, trailing only North Dakota (2.7%) for the lowest rate among the states.
The five states posting the highest unemployment rates in June were West Virginia (7.4%), the District of Columbia (7%), Nevada (6.9%), Alaska (6.8%), and South Carolina and Mississippi tied for fifth with an unemployment rate of 6.6%.
Eight states posted trailed Nebraska with unemployment rates between 3% and 4%: North Dakota (3.1%); Utah (3.5%); Vermont (3.6%); Iowa (3.7%); South Dakota and New Hampshire (3.8%); and Minnesota and Montana(3.9%).
The data were released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics in its June report on regional and state employment and unemployment.
North Dakota’s employment statistics have been hit hard by the drilling slowdown. The unemployment rate in the state has risen from 2.7% a year ago to 3.1% this year. The other state that has been hit with job losses due to the slowdown in the oil patch is Texas, but that state is so much larger and has a far more diverse economy than North Dakota that the unemployment rate in Texas has actually fallen from 5% in June 2014 to 4.2% in June 2015.
Only West Virginia and the District of Columbia have unemployment rates at or above 7%. The cuts to federal government jobs are likely to be mostly responsible for the high unemployment rate in D.C., while the higher rate in West Virginia is almost surely the result of lower demand for coal.
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