As U.S. unemployment falls toward 5% and the economy adds close to 200,000 jobs a month, the recovery remains extremely uneven, with two states at or above 7% and a number above 6%. One of the notable factors in these states is that the problem is not restricted to just one or two industries.

In June, the unemployment rate in West Virginia was 7.4%. The figure sat at 7.0% in the District of Columbia. In Alaska it is 6.8%, in Nevada 6.9% and in Mississippi and South Carolina at 6.6%. The spread of joblessness in the states compared to the national average ranges from 25% to 40% above the June number.

Granted, these numbers have improved over the past five years as the national figure has dropped from 10.1% in October 2009. However, that does not mean some areas have hit a cap that they may not move much beyond for the next several months or longer.

It is hard to tease out why the unemployment has hovered so high in some states. West Virginia has lost coal mining jobs. As The New York Times points out, six domestic coal miners have filed for Chapter 11 since January.

In Alaska, a number of government jobs have been eliminated and the tourism industry has suffered. In Mississippi, a great deal of the trouble is due to construction jobs. In Nevada, mining jobs have not recovered, though jobs in the gaming business have begun to improve. In South Carolina, the government jobs and manufacturing sectors continue to struggle.

One of the most vexing components of high unemployment from state to state is that the problem is not a regional one. Neither is it one confined to a few industries. That makes addressing the trouble more difficult, and probably something that cannot be solved by the federal government. In states with the highest unemployment, one shoe does not fit all.

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