State Labor Markets in May 2024
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State labor markets were again mixed to moderate in May. Seven states (counting DC here) had statistically significant gains in payrolls , with the most impressive gain Idaho’s .9 percent increase, while both California and Texas had increases over 40,000 The other states, had changes deemed to be insignificant, including New York’s increase of more than 20,000.
Four states had statistically significant declines in their unemployment rates in April, and three had increases. None were larger than .2 percentage point. The highest unemployment rates were in DC (5.3%), California (5.2%), DC (5.2%) and Nevada (5.1%). No other state had rates as much as a point higher than the national 4.0%. Alabama, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming had rates of 3.0% or lower, with both Dakotas at 2.0%.
Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.8%, while the island’s job count edged up by 700.
Charles Steindel
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Charles Steindel has been editor of Business Economics, the journal of the National Association for Business Economics, since 2016. From 2014 to 2021 he was Resident Scholar at the Anisfield School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey. From 2010 to 2014 he was the first Chief Economist of the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, with responsibilities for economic and revenue projections and analysis of state economic policy. He came to the Treasury after a long career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he played a major role in forecasting and policy advice and rose to the rank of Senior Vice-President. He has served in leadership positions in a number of professional organizations. In 2011 he received the William F. Butler Award from the New York Association for Business Economics, is a fellow of NABE and of the Money Marketeers of New York University, and has received several awards for articles published in Business Economics. In 2017 he delivered Ramapo College's Sebastian J. Raciti Memorial Lecture. He is a member of the panel for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Survey of Professional Forecasters and of the Committee on Research in Income and Wealth. He has published papers in a range of areas, and is the author of Economic Indicators for Professionals: Putting the Statistics into Perspective. He received his bachelor's degree from Emory University, his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a National Association for Business Economics Certified Business EconomistTM.
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