by Calculated Risk on 4/19/2013 10:52:00 AM

From the BLS: Jobless rate down in 26 states, up in 7 in March; payroll jobs down in 26 states, up in 23

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in March. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases, 7 states had increases, and 17 states had no change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
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Nevada had the highest unemployment rate among the states in March, 9.7 percent. The next highest rates were in Illinois (9.5 percent) and California and Mississippi (9.4 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 remains the laggard.

The states are ranked by the highest current unemployment rate. No state has double digit unemployment and the unemployment rate is at or above 9% in only seven states: Nevada, Mississippi, Illinois, California, North Carolina, Rhode Island and New Jersey. In early 2010, almost half the states had an unemployment rate above 9%.