by Calculated Risk on 9/20/2013 11:24:00 AM

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

Regional and state unemployment rates were little changed in August. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rate increases, 17 states had decreases, and 15 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 August, 9.5 percent. The next highest rate was in Illinois, 9.2 percent. North Dakota continued to have the lowest jobless rate, 3.0 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 and many other states have seen significant declines (California, Florida and more).

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 four states: Nevada, Illinois, 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 four states have an unemployment rate above 9% (purple), seventeen states above 8% (light blue), and 30 states above 7% - the most in a year (blue).