Unemployment Rate by State

View Unemployment Rate by State   (hover mouse over graphs to view details)
The number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force. Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work.  This is the standard U3 unemployment rate.  The unemployment rates for several states are displayed on the graph as an example. The unemployment rates for several states are displayed on the graph as an example. (Change states using the selections at the left of the graph.)

Related Information:
Using Multiple Measures to Understand Unemployment.
How the government measures unemployment.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT COMPARING STATE DATA TO NATIONAL DATA
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issues the following caution about comparing state data to national. “It should be noted that BLS estimation procedures are designed to produce accurate data for each individual state. BLS independently develops the national employment series and does not force state estimates to sum to national totals nor vice versa. Because each state series is subject to larger sampling and non-sampling errors than the national series, summing them cumulates individual state levels errors and can cause significant distortions at an aggregate level. Due to these statistical limitations, BLS does not compile a “sum of states” employment series and cautions users that such a series is subject to a relatively large and volatile error structure.”

The data sets are from:
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.