Statistics show unemployment rising in all 50 states

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.midatlanticlabor.com/appiesnet/wordpress/?p=850

By PAUL TUCKER
[e-mail]

REGION, March 18th- Data released by the United States Department of Labor (DOL) Bureau of Labor Statistics confirm that the recession has led to higher unemployment in every state across the nation. Since the recession began, employers have laid-off 4.4 million workers and a record 12.5 million workers are now unemployed. Every state and the District of Columbia have unemployment rates that are higher than a year ago.

Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 11.6 percent, followed by South Carolina at 10.4 percent, Rhode Island is third at 10.3 percent, and California is fourth at 10.1 percent.

Twenty-nine states have lost at least 2 percent of their total jobs since their employment level peaked in 2007 or 2008, during the height of the economic recovery of the 2000s. Nonfarm payroll employment decreased in fourty-two states, increased in seven states as well as the District of Columbia, and was unchanged in one state, Vermont.

High unemployment has led to substained high numbers of applicants for unemployment benefits nationwide. The four-week moving average, the weekly average number of new applicants for unemployment benefits over the previous four weeks, continues to be at highs not seen since the recession in the early 1980s.

Many unemployed workers are finding that getting a new job is increasingly difficult. Nearly one in four unemployed workers, 23.1 percent, have been out of work and searching for a job for at least six months, up from less than one in five, 17.3 percent, a year ago. And 3.4 million workers over the past year ran out of unemployment benefits before they found a new job.

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