Unemployment Numbers By State

[orleans]

"The unemployment rates below are for November and were released on Dec. 21, 2007


1 IDAHO 2.7
2 SOUTH DAKOTA 2.8
2 UTAH 2.8
4 HAWAII 2.9
4 WYOMING 2.9
6 NEBRASKA 3.1
6 NORTH DAKOTA 3.1
8 VIRGINIA 3.2
9 DELAWARE 3.4
9 MONTANA 3.4
9 NEW HAMPSHIRE 3.4
9 NEW MEXICO 3.4
13 ALABAMA 3.5
13 LOUISIANA 3.5
15 MARYLAND 3.7
16 KANSAS 3.8
17 IOWA 3.9
17 VERMONT 3.9
19 ARIZONA 4.1
19 COLORADO 4.1
21 NEW JERSEY 4.2
21 PENNSYLVANIA 4.2
21 TEXAS 4.2
24 FLORIDA 4.3
24 MASSACHUSETTS 4.3
26 GEORGIA 4.4
26 MINNESOTA 4.4
28 OKLAHOMA 4.5
29 NEW YORK 4.6
29 WEST VIRGINIA 4.6
31 INDIANA 4.7
31 NORTH CAROLINA 4.7
31 WASHINGTON 4.7
34 MAINE 4.9
34 TENNESSEE 4.9
36 CONNECTICUT 5
36 KENTUCKY 5
38 WISCONSIN 5.1
39 ILLINOIS 5.2
39 MISSOURI 5.2
39 RHODE ISLAND 5.2
42 NEVADA 5.4
43 OREGON 5.5
44 CALIFORNIA 5.6
44 OHIO 5.6
46 ARKANSAS 5.7
46 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 5.7
48 SOUTH CAROLINA 5.9
49 MISSISSIPPI 6.3
50 ALASKA 6.4
51 MICHIGAN 7.4
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/state_unemployment/index.html

[zanne]

1. I wonder why Idaho has only a 2.7% of unemployment? nt

[orleans]

2. good question. (larry craig and crapo are the senators)

wonder what the minimum wage was there back in november?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

25. They have a strong farming sector

And they show strong Hispanic buying power in their economy.

At a glance of wages for several of the farming community jobs I found lower than average pay rates, with wage increases well below inflation.

They're also offering incentives for tourist based industries. When I looked into the wages offered for lodging staff it was also below average with wage increases below inflation rates.

At a glance it's possible they're exploiting minority workers, but one would have to do much more looking into it to be sure.

[Jamastiene]

5. There are probably only 1000 people in the whole state

Ok, that's an exaggeration, but isn't Idaho one of those low population states? Maybe that's it.

[goodgd_yall]

6. Doesn't Idaho have a lot of retirees?

[orleans]

9. i don't know, but apparently they have the magic to transform superfund sites:

"KELLOGG, Idaho -- It may seem an unlikely candidate for the Pacific Northwest's latest vacation hot spot, but this former mining town has survived decades of decline to boom once more.

The once-heavily-polluted mining community -- a massive Superfund site -- seems to have been transformed virtually overnight into a swanky ski resort, Silver Mountain, with newcomers flocking to buy condos and open businesses.

''It was a definite surprise it took off the way it did,'' said Mayor Mac Pooler, a lifelong resident. ``We were hoping something would do that.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/986/story/381789.html

[slampoet]

16. Idaho has only 2.7% of their jobless actively drawing Unemployment Insurance

I am sure there are LOTS of people who are jobless and not counted.


The reason you see these figures is that this state has lower benefits.

[OhioChick]

3. I See That Ohio

is at the Bottom of the Barrel. Too Many Years of Repub Rule Here.

[bdamomma]

4. rates look bad.

why does Idaho have such a low unemployment level?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. These are old numbers. Many have risen since November

An example being Texas unemployment rose to 4.5 percent in December.

[orleans]

8. "old numbers"? and you're updating by only one month!

what was idaho's number last month? i suspect their unemployment didn't jump too much above what it was in november...

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. It rose to 6%

The unemployment rate for the state in December rose to 6.0 percent, up from 5.6 percent in November, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor.
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/13971082.html

I didn't mean to sound snitty, but in times like these a month can make a difference.

[orleans]

12. i was talking about idaho--not ohio--idaho had the lowest unemployment

in november--

[Lone_Star_Dem]

15. Sorry I misread

I had Ohio on the brain.

Rose too.

December Unemployment Rate Increases to 3 Percent
http://labor.idaho.gov/news/PressReleases/tabid/294/ctl/PressRelease/mid/1047/ItemID/1954/Default.aspx

[orleans]

19. thanks. that's still pretty low. i wonder if they are still the lowest?

(what is larry craig doing for business in his state that other senators are not? i hate to guess...)

[wiggs]

11. Aren't these figures artificially low because

the rules were changed to move more people out of the "umemployed" ranks sooner if they didn't find a job? I seem to remember that people looking for work have a certain amount of time, then they are taken off the unemployment list. So these figures may represent "new" unemployed?

Recollection fuzzy on this....

[flashl]

14. IIRC, its the U2 (folks getting unemployment pay) vs U3

(folks w/o pay and looking). U3 is higher.

[knitter4democracy]

13. Yup. I figured we were the bottom of the stack.

Heck, I think it's higher than 7.4%, actually. I'm hearing of many people in our area who've been out of work for too long to be counted. Then you have underemployment, and our state is screwed.

[slampoet]

17. Hell, when i lived in Michigan it was the Height of the Dot Com boom and I was still underemployed.

I can't imagine what it is like now.

[knitter4democracy]

36. It's bad. My son will be losing at least three of his friends after the school year ends.

Their families are packing up and moving. It's really sad.

[gollygee]

18. Me too

it's awful. And it's getting worse all the time. Every few weeks we hear from another neighbor who has been laid off. And I know tons of people who have been out of work for AGES and end up delivering pizzas or something to scrape together what little cash they can. Do they count that as "employed" on unemployment stats? Is going from a 50k job to delivering pizzas something that would show up on any kind of employment statistic?

[orleans]

21. didn't edwards say something about being ... somewhere...maybe MI

and within a one block radius there were 28 homes being foreclosed?

[gollygee]

23. My brother's house is being foreclosed

he had been trying to sell it for two years. Toward the end, people would say, "We like it but we'll wait till it's in foreclosure." So many houses are in foreclosure, that it sets the market value. People have plenty of houses to choose from in foreclosure and aren't willing to pay more than that.

[knitter4democracy]

34. My in-laws lost theirs, same way.

They were trying to sell their house by Akron, OH. It ended up in foreclosure. It can happen to anyone.

[knitter4democracy]

33. He's not in Michigan, that's for sure. He won't campaign here.

Right when we need him the most.

[orleans]

40. aw, i'm sorry. (maybe he was talking about s. carolina? i forget)

why won't he campaign there in michigan?

[knitter4democracy]

41. He made an agreement not to.

Our party higher-ups, dolts that they are, along with the MIGOP higher-ups decided to move up our primary date. That made Iowa and New Hampshire pissed, and the DNC took away all of our delegates. In order to mollify IA and NH, Obama, Edwards, and all the rest agreed not to campaign here, and everyone except Clinton, Kucinich, Gravel, and Dodd got their names off of our ballots, too.

It's pretty much turned the state red, from everything I'm hearing up here, but at least the DNC stuck to their rules. :eyes: It's hard for me to get excited about Edwards when Michigan's going down faster than the Titanic and he still won't come here to help.

[TahitiNut]

28. There's no such thing as "too long to be counted" ... as long as people are still looking.

If the individual is still looking for employment in the 4 weeks prior to the CPS survey date, they're counted as "unemployed." Otherwise, they're deemed not part of the "labor force".

Again, the unemployment statistics are derived from the CPS which is performed by the Bureau of the Census on behalf of the Bureau of Labor Standards.

[knitter4democracy]

35. How do they know the person's still looking?

I've always wondered that.

[TahitiNut]

38. They ASK.

The CPS is a fairly lengthy questionnaire. Now, I don't know whether they ask for references or, if they do, whether they check them ... but the survey is rather extensive and has a fairly large sample size - for some of the more finely tracked items. Error rates (and deception rates) are very constant over time so the impact is trivial.

[knitter4democracy]

42. Oooohhh. That makes sense.

Thanks!

[AlCzervik]

20. California has actually clicked up to 6.2%.

[TahitiNut]

30. No ... California went from 5.6% in November to 6.1% in December.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.t03.htm

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

22. Horseshit.

Double it.

[dweller]

24. what he said

and then round up.

dp

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

26. at least!!!

:hurts:

[Blue_In_AK]

27. I think Alaska's unemployment rate

always rises in the winter because so many jobs here are seasonal. A lot of people work through the summer and collect unemployment in the winter.

[TahitiNut]

31. These are "seasonally adjusted" numbers ... Alaska went from 6.4% in November to 6.5% in December.

The only (somewhat) valid way of citing month-to-month unemployment in comparison to other areas is through using the "seasonally adjusted" numbers. I find, however, that year-over-year trends and 12-month rolling averages are far more descriptive of the reality "on the ground."

[TahitiNut]

29. Here are the numbers for December 2007, as released on January 18, 2008

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.t03.htm

Michigan has gone from 7.4% to 7.5%. It should be noted that the Detroit MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) has unemployment that's increased from 7.7% to 8.5%.

[knitter4democracy]

37. And how many have stopped looking?

It's awful. Just awful watching the state I love fall apart so dramatically.

[TahitiNut]

39. They're called "Discouraged Workers"

It's the number NOT in the Labor Force due to "Discouragement over job prospects (Persons who believe no job is available.)"

That number increased from 349,000 to 363,000 between November and December, an increase of 14,000 workers (and corresponding DECREASE in the size of the Labor Force).

The data can be obtained at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?ln by checking "Discouraged Workers - LNU05026645" and clicking on 'Retrieve data.'

[knitter4democracy]

43. Wow. That's bad.

The numbers are really bad.

[fed-up]

32. Butte County's (CA) jobless rate in Dec was 7.4 percent, up from 5.9 percent in Nov 2006.

http://www.chicoer.com//ci_8017709
Butte, Glenn, Tehama jobless rate up
By E-R Staff
Article Launched: 01/19/2008 12:13:01 AM PST

..snip

The largest drops in employment occurred in construction and real estate. Some of that is seasonally related, but also reflective of the economy.

In Glenn County, the unemployment rate jumped from 8.3 percent to 9.9 percent, representing an increase from 980 without jobs to 1,180 in a year-over comparison. Large losses were experienced in manufacturing, construction, and federal jobs.

In Tehama County, the year-over rate jumped from 6.3 percent to 8 percent, representing an increase from 1,590 unemployed individuals to 2,060. The largest drops were seen in natural resources, mining and construction, transportation and warehousing, information, and financial activities.

There were also increases in population that affected the unemployment rate in all three counties and the state.

Statewide, California's unemployment rate in December was 6.1 percent, compared to 4.8 percent a year ago

[Breeze54]

44. Despite what Romney says, MA unemployment rate went UP to 4.5%

Mass. unemployment rate sees slight uptick

Boston Business Journal

http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/01/14/daily54.html

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The unemployment rate in Massachusetts saw a small increase in December, according
to figures released Thursday by the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Officials reported the state's jobless rate was at 4.5 percent in December, up from 4.3 percent
the previous month as 2,700 payroll jobs were lost. The local unemployment rate is lower than
the national rate, according to a statement from officials. The state rate in December was a half
a percentage point lower than the US rate, which climbed up to 5.0 percent in December.

[madokie]

45. I wonder though do these numbers actually tell us anything

I've been unemployed in the past and my number wasn't added to that figure so I take what I read about the unemployment numbers, in our press or hear spoken by our congress critters, with a grain of salt. I personally would rather read a number of actual people unemployed and those under employed.
nothing personal on this ok.

We've had a law change concerning hiring legalities and holding the employers responsible and since its inception there is a much better picture for the construction workers around here of which I used to be one of.