by Calculated Risk on 3/18/2013 11:22:00 AM

From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in January. Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rate increases, 8 states posted decreases, and 17 states had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
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California and Rhode Island recorded the highest unemployment rates among the states in January, 9.8 percent each.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This graph shows the current unemployment rate for each state (red), and the max during the recession (blue). All states are below the maximum unemployment rate for the recession.

The size of the blue bar indicates the amount of improvement - Michigan and Nevada have seen the largest declines - New Jersey is the laggard.

The states are ranked by the highest current unemployment rate. No state has double digit unemployment for the first time since late 2008 (Note: with revisions, no state had double a digit unemployment rate in Dec 2012 too). In early 2010, 18 states and D.C. had double digit unemployment rates.

Nevada has had the highest unemployment rate in the nation since early 2010 (Michigan led the nation before Nevada).  Now California and Rhode Island have the highest rate.  The unemployment rate in Nevada has fallen very quickly from 12.1% in August 2012 to 9.7% in January 2013.

All current employment graphs