Jobless Rates Fall in 37 States
Jobless Rates Decrease in 37 U.S. States
Ashley Gilbertson/VII Network
Job seekers at a job fair for medical professionals in New York City.
Job seekers at a job fair for medical professionals in New York City. Photographer: Ashley Gilbertson/VII Network
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Unemployment dropped in 37 U.S. states in December, with Alabama showing the biggest decrease, a report from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Payrolls increased in 25 states, led by Texas. Mark Crumpton reports on Bloomberg Television's "Bottom Line." (Source: Bloomberg)
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, talks about the president's third State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress tonight. Jarrett speaks to Hans Nichols on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop with Betty Liu." (Source: Bloomberg)
Jobless Rates Fall in 37 States
Job seekers at the Augusta Career Fair in Georgia on Oct. 20, 2011. Photograph: The Augusta Chronicle/ZUMAPRESS.com
Job seekers at the Augusta Career Fair in Georgia on Oct. 20, 2011. Photograph: The Augusta Chronicle/ZUMAPRESS.com
Unemployment dropped in 37 U.S. states in December, indicating the improvement in the job market is broad based as the economy picks up.
Alabama showed the biggest decrease in joblessness, with its rate falling to 8.1 percent last month from 8.7 percent in November, a report from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. Payrolls increased in 25 states, led by Texas.
Further employment gains put consumers in a better position to boost household spending, the biggest part of the world’s largest economy. U.S. employers added 200,000 workers in December and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest since February 2009, the Labor Department reported on Jan. 6.
“We are probably on the cusp of an important turning point in the labor market,” said Carl Riccadonna, a senior U.S. economist at Deutsch Bank Securities in New York. “Businesses have been straining their workforces to squeeze out more output, but that can’t go on indefinitely. They have to add more workers. This is finally happening.”
Texas led the nation with a gain of 20,200 workers, followed by Indiana with 15,100. Payrolls in New York dropped by 14,000, the biggest decrease among the 24 states showing losses.
California, Texas
For all of 2011, California gained the most jobs as payrolls grew by 263,200 workers, followed by Texas, with 204,500, and Florida, which showed a 113,900 increase. In percentage terms, North Dakota, Utah and Oklahoma showed the biggest advances in employment.
Michigan’s jobless rate dropped to 9.3 percent in December from 9.8 percent the prior month, making it the state with the second-biggest decrease. The rate is down 1.8 percentage points over the past 12 months, which may in part reflect a rebound in auto making.
Ford Motor Co. (F), the second-largest U.S. carmaker, posted a 10 percent gain in sales last month from a year earlier, and closed out 2011 with 2.15 million light vehicles purchased, an 11 percent gain.
“We were able to end the year on, what we feel, is a high note,” Erich Merkle, Ford’s U.S. sales analyst, said on a conference call Jan. 4. “December was a strong number.”
Nevada’s jobless rate, at 12.6 percent last month, remained the highest in the U.S. Nonetheless, it’s shown the most improvement over the past year, falling 2.3 percentage points.
Lowest Jobless Rate
North Dakota again had the lowest level of unemployment at 3.3 percent.
The economy probably expanded at a 3 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter, up from a 1.8 percent gain in the previous three month, figures from the Commerce Department may show on Jan. 26 according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The unemployment rate in Florida, home to the next Republican presidential primary contest, fell to 9.9 percent from 10 percent the prior month.
State and local employment data are derived independently from the national statistics, which are typically released on the first Friday of every month. The state figures are subject to larger sampling errors because they come from smaller surveys, making the national figures more reliable, according to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To contact the reporter on this story: Timothy R. Homan in Washington at thoman1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
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