by Calculated Risk on 3/29/2013 11:19:00 AM

From the BLS: Jobless rates down in 22 states, up in 12 in Feb.; payroll jobs up in 42 states, down in 8

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in February. Twenty-two states had unemployment rate decreases, 12 states had increases, and 16 states and the District of Columbia had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
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California, Mississippi, and Nevada had the highest unemployment rates among the states in February, 9.6 percent each. North Dakota again had the lowest jobless rate, 3.3 percent.

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 and the unemployment rate is above 9% in only seven states: Mississippi, California, Nevada, Illinois, North Carolina, Rhode Island and New Jersey. In early 2010, almost half the states had an unemployment rate above 9%.

The unemployment rate is falling quickly in some states like Nevada and California. As an example, the unemployment rate in Nevada has fallen from 12.1% in August 2012 to 9.6% in February 2013.