Just as we noted yesterday, given late reporting of the March data for employment and unemployment by our friends at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, it looks as if we’ll be providing two updates on unemployment rates per state this month (that’s assuming that May’s reporting is on time….). 

Please click here to go to our Free Resources page where you can download a free PDF of the current data.  

As always, the states are ranked in the report posted yesterday based on the 6 month rolling average of the monthly unemployment growth for each state as published by the BOL/USDOL.  The numbers are frequently revised some months past the initial posting date for the values;  we still feel looking at a 6 month rolling average tends to dampen out the anomalous variations in the data. 

This month South Dakota has bumped Idaho out of first position with a very low unemployment rate of 2.7%.  Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Utah round out the top five.  As with the employment data posted yesterday, 9 of the top 10 states are west of the Mississippi. 

Michigan’s unemployment woes simply aren’t getting better at this point;  Mississippi and Alaska join Michigan at the bottom of the pack. 

Tomorrow we’ll review the markets with the smallest average family size. 

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