Widespread Job Losses

Phil Izzo
The Wall Street Journal
October 22, 2009

Labor-market stress continued to be widespread in September as all but seven states reported job losses last month.

Just New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Indiana, Delaware, South Carolina and New Hampshire managed to eke out gains in employment in September on a seasonally adjusted basis. Taking out the seasonal adjustments, which aim to take into account volatile factors such as ending summer jobs, every state posted a decline last month. On an adjusted basis, New York took the biggest hit with 81,700 jobs lost.

The news looked less dire in the state-by-state unemployment rates. The jobless rate was flat or declined in 27 states. Michigan still has the highest unemployment rate by far at 15.3%, as the state continues to suffer along with American auto manufacturers. Housing bubble hot zones Nevada, California and Florida still have rates over 10%, though California’s rate dropped a bit from August. North and South Dakota have the lowest jobless rates. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia have unemployment rates higher than the national average of 9.8%.

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