Few bright spots as job losses climb - August 2009 report

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Unemployment in most states keeps getting worse

Even in the Midwest, where unemployment remains lowest, the news is getting slowly grimmer. Most states lost jobs or remained roughly stable in August compared to July, retaining frustratingly high unemployment rates. Some states did worse than others. Both Rhode Island and the District of Columbia increased unemployment by half a percent in just a month, with New York and New Jersey close behind. Michigan remains an employment tragedy, with 15.2% unemployment, even worse than last month, followed by Rhode Island and Nevada. In all, fifteen states have higher than 10 percent unemployment.

On the other hand, there were a few bright spots, such as Virginia, Ohio and Colorado reducing their unemployment rates by about half a percentage point. Once again, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska are proving significantly more resiliant than all other states, offering job stability to make others envious. But Indiana is the biggest mover, reducing its unemployment rate by 0.7% from the previous month.

The unemployment rates referenced here are for August, 2009, the latest available statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics are from August, 2009.