by Calculated Risk on 11/22/2013 12:23:00 PM

From the BLS: Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in October

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in October. Twenty-eight states had unemployment rate decreases from September, 11 states and the District of Columbia had increases, and 11 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 October, 9.3 percent. The next highest rates were in Rhode Island, 9.2 percent, and Michigan, 9.0 percent. North Dakota continued to have the lowest jobless rate, 2.7 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, Nevada and Florida have seen the largest declines and many other states have seen significant 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 three states: Nevada, Rhode Island and Michigan.

The second graph shows the number of states with unemployment rates above certain levels since January 2006. At the worst of the employment recession, there were 9 states with an unemployment rate above 11% (red).

Currently three states have an unemployment rate at or above 9% (purple), thirteen states at or above 8% (light blue), and 23 states at or above 7% (blue).