Arizona Leads the Way in Job Losses
From Wall Street Journal | Aug 21, 2009 | By Sara Murray
The
latest state and regional employment data isn't exactly a surprise:
Michigan still has the highest unemployment rate, up to 15% now, and
North Dakota has the lowest, holding steady at 4.2%, the Labor Department said today.
But breaking out the data another way - based on the percentage
change in employment over the last 12 months - some more interesting
state trends emerge. Only two places gained jobs. One, of course, was
North Dakota. The second was the District of Columbia where the
unemployment rate reached 10.6% in July. (To see how the unemployment
rate has changed across states, click here.)
And the biggest drop in employment, percentage wise, wasn't Michigan
but rather Arizona, where the 9.2% unemployment rate is still below the
national average.
For more fun with numbers, here's the full chart:
| State | July 2008 Employment | July 2009 Employment | Percent Change Over 12 Months |
| Alabama | 2,000,800 | 1,907,600 | -4.7 |
| Alaska | 322,900 | 322,400 | -0.2 |
| Arizona | 2,629,700 | 2,431,400 | -7.5 |
| Arkansas | 1,206,000 | 1,178,200 | -2.3 |
| California | 15,009,800 | 14,249,600 | -5.1 |
| Colorado | 2,356,500 | 2,254,500 | -4.3 |
| Connecticut | 1,700,400 | 1,633,400 | -3.9 |
| Delaware | 434,300 | 411,100 | -5.3 |
| District of Columbia | 710,000 | 716,200 | 0.9 |
| Florida | 7,755,900 | 7,354,800 | -5.2 |
| Georgia | 4,107,700 | 3,901,800 | -5.0 |
| Hawaii | 618,200 | 600,700 | -2.8 |
| Idaho | 651,500 | 617,400 | -5.2 |
| Illinois | 5,956,300 | 5,669,800 | -4.8 |
| Indiana | 2,956,200 | 2,805,900 | -5.1 |
| Iowa | 1,525,100 | 1,478,000 | -3.1 |
| Kansas | 1,391,400 | 1,341,100 | -3.6 |
| Kentucky | 1,858,500 | 1,775,000 | -4.5 |
| Louisiana | 1,941,100 | 1,924,500 | -0.9 |
| Maine | 617,700 | 596,700 | -3.4 |
| Maryland | 2,602,000 | 2,551,700 | -1.9 |
| Massachusetts | 3,293,700 | 3,184,300 | -3.3 |
| Michigan | 4,160,200 | 3,879,400 | -6.7 |
| Minnesota | 2,763,900 | 2,657,000 | -3.9 |
| Mississippi | 1,144,300 | 1,118,000 | -2.3 |
| Missouri | 2,793,200 | 2,717,000 | -2.7 |
| Montana | 446,900 | 438,900/td> | -1.8 |
| Nebraska | 963,900 | 949,800 | -1.5 |
| Nevada | 1,269,100 | 1,187,300 | -6.4 |
| New Hampshire | 645,700 | 630,100 | -2.4 |
| New Jersey | 4,058,300 | 3,936,100 | -3.0 |
| New Mexico | 847,100 | 817,600 | -3.5 |
| New York | 8,836,800 | 8,644,600 | -2.2 |
| North Carolina | 4,133,600 | 3,911,700 | -5.4 |
| North Dakota | 367,700 | 371,500 | 1.0 |
| Ohio | 5,377,600 | 5,122,900 | -4.7 |
| Oklahoma | 1,597,900 | 1,564,200 | -2.1 |
| Oregon | 1,728,900 | 1,630,300 | -5.7 |
| Pennsylvania | 5,804,000 | 5,620,700 | -3.2 |
| Rhode Island | 481,400 | 463,900 | -3.6 |
| South Carolina | 1,929,500 | 1,852,400 | -4.0 |
| South Dakota | 411,100 | 405,900 | -1.3 |
| Tennessee | 2,776,300 | 2,664,900 | -4.0 |
| Texas | 10,639,300 | 10,416,800 | -2.1 |
| Utah | 1,254,300 | 1,201,600 | -4.2 |
| Vermont | 306,600 | 294,500 | -3.9 |
| Virginia | 3,768,000 | 3,664,000 | -2.8 |
| Washington | 2,971,500 | 2,859,400 | -3.8 |
| West Virginia | 762,900 | 735,500 | -3.6 |
| Wisconsin | 2,868,300 | 2,751,900 | -4.1 |
| Wyoming | 298,800 | 289,000 | -3.3 |
*Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
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