Friday Aug 19th, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their July 2011 regional and state unemployment rates. Illinois is tied in ranking for 36th place at 9.5% for state unemployment rates along with Kentucky, New Jersey and Oregon. North Dakota and Nebraska are ranked number one and two with unemployment rates of 3.3% and 4.1% respectively.
At the bottom of the rankings are Nevada and California at 12.9% and 12% respectively. The July national unemployment is 9.1%, down from 9.2% in June.
The seasonally adjusted month over month unemployment rate increase of 0.4% from 9.1% to 9.5%, ranked IL as one of the five states with the largest July increases.
On a historical basis (data beginning in 1976), the highest recorded rate for the IL unemployment rate is 12.9% from December 1982 to February 1983. The lowest recorded rate is 4.2% in February 1999. IL last reached 9.5% unemployment in October/ November 2010.
In recent years the IL unemployment rate bottomed in September and October of 2006 at 4.4%, just prior to the recession and peaked at 11.2% in January of 2010. Since peaking, the rate did reach a low of 8.7% in April of this year and is similar to the experience of several other states in recent months.
Other states (including the District of Columbia) with large month over month increases from June to July included: DC from 10.4% to 10.8%, Michigan from 10.5% to 10.9%, Minnesota from 6.8% to 7.2%, South Carolina from 10.5% to 10.9% and Nevada with a 0.5% increase from 12.4% to 12.9%.
Nine states experienced a reduction of their unemployment rates in July ranging from -0.1% to -0.4%. West Virginia had the largest reduction of -0.4% from 8.5% to 8.1%. Louisiana ranked second in July’s reduction of unemployment of -0.2% from 7.8% to 7.6%. 28 states and the District of Columbia increased their unemployment rates from 0.1% to 0.5% and the unemployment rate of 13 states remained unchanged.
Click here for the July 2011 state rankings of unemployment rates.
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