The image above represents January's rates, and the big news is that three more states have passed 10% employment between January and February.
States with jobless rates over 10% in February, according to the Labor Department:
--Michigan 12%
--South Carolina 11%
--Oregon 10.8% (new on list)
--North Carolina 10.7% (new on list, record high for state)
--California 10.5%
--Rhode Island 10.5% (record high for state)
--Nevada 10.5% (new on list)
--what state do you think will join this list next?
--what state do you think will be last to join?
--the national jobless rate hit 8.1% in February, highest in over 25 years
--economists predict national rate over 10% by end of 2009
--49 states (and DC) posted job losses last month (Nebraska was the exception)
--between Jan-Feb 09: largest decreases in employment reported by California (-116,000), Florida (-49,500), Texas (-46,100), Pennsylvania (-41,000), Illinois (-37,200), and Georgia (-35,900)
--Denver, Colorado: 7.9%
--all 50 states have higher jobless rates than last year
--since December 2007, 4.4 million jobs have been lost
--Obama's target is to save or create 3.5 million
--these numbers seem to be "nonfarm payroll employment": why are farms excluded? what about self-employed individuals?
--by region: west (largest increase) and midwest highest rates
--northeast lowest rate
--between January and February 2009, 33 states recorded statistically significant changes in employment, all decreases
SOURCES:
The actual numbers everybody is talking about:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm
The first article on this I ran across:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBTa0e1ODD5k&refer=home
http://www.freep.com/article/20090328/BUSINESS07/903280344/1020/BUSINESS/6+join+Michigan+in+double-digit+unemployment+rates
A list of a states rates as of Nov 08:
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/state_unemployment/