The State With the Highest Unemployment in America

Jobs

Published: April 27, 2023 7:30 am

Unemployment has dipped to nearly a 50-year low, indicating that a recession may not come. Millions of jobs in America have gone unfilled. However, some states are outliers and continue to have high jobless rates. (These industries are laying off the most workers.)
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released its State Employment and Unemployment report for March 2023. It showed national unemployment at 3.5%. While 11 states had jobless rate decreases from a year earlier, 10 had had increases and 29 saw little or no change.

Jobless figures in some states were at an all-time low since the BLS started to gather data. South Dakota had an unemployment figure of 1.9%. This means that only 9,187 people were out of work in the state in March. If the statistics include people who have left one job but will take another soon, the figure may be closer to zero.

The state at the far end of the spectrum was Nevada at 5.5%. The state with the next highest jobless rate was Washington, which was at 4.5%.

Nevada is outside the bell-shaped curve of joblessness in the United States because unemployment in its largest city, Las Vegas, is high. Yet, employment in the largest sector was strong. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Leisure and hospitality is above 99 percent recovered to its pre-pandemic peak.”

ALSO READ: Cities That Will Add the Most Jobs by 2060 According to Economists

The jobless rate in Nevada was largely due to the construction industry. David Schmidt, chief economist of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, stated, “Healthcare and leisure industries saw the largest gains, while construction saw the largest decline over the month.” Since people are moving into the state, home and office building construction are likely to be strong, which leaves the figure a mystery.

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