by Calculated Risk on 5/17/2013 10:57:00 AM

From the BLS: April jobless rates down in 40 states, up in 3; payroll jobs up in 30 states, down in 18

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed in April. Forty states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate decreases, three states had increases, and seven 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 April, 9.6 percent. The next highest rates were in Illinois (9.3 percent), Mississippi (9.1 percent), and California (9.0 percent). 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.

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 four states: Nevada, Illinois, Mississippi, and California.  This is the fewest states with 9% unemployment since 2008.