Key Points:
- Unemployment rates fell in 11 states and remained stable in 39 states and the District of Columbia in May.
- The U.S. unemployment rate increased to 3.7% in May.
- Nine states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rates above the U.S. average in May.
- Seventeen states had jobless rate decreases from a year earlier, 8 states and the District had increases, and 25 states had little change.
- Nebraska, New Hampshire, and South Dakota had the lowest jobless rates in May at 1.9% each.
- The rates in Arkansas (2.7%), Maryland (2.4%), Mississippi (3.2%), Nebraska (1.9%), New Hampshire (1.9%), Ohio (3.6%), and Pennsylvania (4.0%) set new series lows.
- Nevada has the highest unemployment rate again at 5.4%, followed by the District at 5.1%, and California at 4.5%.
- In May, 11 states had over-the-month unemployment rate decreases, the largest of which were in Massachusetts, Oregon, and Vermont falling 0.3% each.