10/21/09 Stockholm, Sweden – The current unemployment picture is a disaster no matter how you slice it. However, unique and telling details emerge in a specific state-by-state analysis. The most tragic is that Florida, Nevada, and Rhode Island joblessness have all hit various record highs.
The overall, national unemployment rate ballooned to 9.8 percent, a 28-year high, in September. It also increased in 23 states, 14 of which had rates over 10%. The following is a rundown of some of the hardest hit states…
* Michigan, at 15.3 percent, is still the nation’s unemployment capital. It’s the epicenter of the failed auto industry and it shows.
* Nevada, at 13.3 percent, has the nation’s second-highest jobless rate.
* Rhode Island, at 13 percent, was third.
* Florida, at 11 percent, is at its highest rate since studies of unemployment data collection first started in 1976.
* It’s not a state, but the District of Columbia, at 11.4 percent, is also having difficulty with joblessness. This one’s kind of a surprise given the federal government’s predilection for inventing as many well-paid and useless bureaucratic positions as possible.
* Georgia’s unemployment rate did not go up, but remained at a high 10.1 percent.
It’s useful to take a deeper look behind the national statistics in order get a better sense of how the individual states are doing. It’s clear that at least a few of the hardest hit were some of the highest flying in their respective boom times. Many more specific are available in Bloomberg coverage of record highs in state-level unemployment.
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Doesn’t seem that bad here in Iowa. Less bubble means less bust. Of course, for the last 10 years there were not that many jobs to begin with.
10/22/2009 Georgia unemployment is 10.5
Rosenberg at Gluskin-Sheff:
The state by state U.S. employment data were just released and showed that the aggregate job loss in September was 451,600 (recall that the initial nonfarm payroll release revealed a 263,000 decline). New record highs for the unemployment rate were reached in three states — Florida, Nevada and Rhode Island. There are now 14 states that have double-digits unemployment rates. Moreover, the decline was so widespread that 43 of the states posted reductions in their employment base last month
HOW’S THAT HOPE AND CHANGE WORKING OUT FOR THE REST OF YOU. THIS WV SURFACE MINER HAS SOME CHANGE LEFT BUT NO HOPE LEFT IN THE DEMS IN DC.