The unemployment level in the United States in February was 4.9%. Six states lagged well behind that with jobless rates above 6%, which shows how uneven the rebound from the recession has been.
The six states included, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Alaska at 6.6%, Mississippi at 6.5%, West Virginia at 6.5%, Illinois at 6.4%, New Mexico at 6.4% and Alabama at 6.2%.
Commenting on the overall trends in unemployment, BLS researchers wrote:
Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in February. Twenty-two states had unemployment rate decreases from January, 8 states had increases, and 20 states and the District of Columbia had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, 10 states had increases, and 3 states had no change. The national jobless rate, 4.9 percent, was unchanged from January and was 0.6 percentage point lower than in February 2015.
Also:
In total, 18 states had unemployment rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 4.9 percent, 11 states and the District of Columbia had measurably higher rates, and 21 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation.
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