Labor Report: Job Recovery from Pandemic Not Equally Spread Among States

A state-specific report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday shows that the amount of unemployed people returning to work is not growing equally.

The unemployment rate in September dropped in 27 states and Washington, D.C., while remining stable in another 22 states, and rising in one, the BLS reported Friday.

The national unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percent in September, and is 3 percent lower than September 2020, the report said.

Nonfarm payroll jobs increased in 11 states, decreased in three, and remained unchanged in 36 states and the District of Columbia during September. Forty-seven states saw increases over the year, according to the report.

Despite a lower unemployment rate nationally, some states are still significantly above the national average, and others are only showing minor gains in jobs.

According to the report, California, and Nevada each had a 7.5 percent unemployment rate in September, well above the national rate, while Utah and Nebraska came in with 2.4 percent and 2 percent respectively.

Texas had the largest gainers in September with 95,800 jobs, Florida with 84,500, and California with 47,400 jobs.

New Jersey's unemployment numbers remined nearly unchanged, from a 7.8 percent unemployment rate in September 2020 to a 7.1 percent rate last month.

In New York City, the unemployment rate dropped from 14.7 percent to 9.8 percent last month, while the unemployment rate for upstate New York dropped from 10 percent to 7.1 percent during the year.

Hawaii saw the biggest drop during the year from 14.8 percent in 2020 to 6.6 percent last month.

According to the bureau, the report presents statistics from two monthly programs.

The civilian labor force and unemployment data are modeled based on a survey of households.

A Business Insider report Friday looked at how long it might take individual states to reach pre-pandemic employment levels going at their current pace of filling jobs.

According to that report, 11 states including New York, Delaware, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Montana, and Hawaii, will take more than 20 months to get back to pre-COVID-19 employment levels, with some of those states taking five years or more.

Another 10 states may take at least a year, with the rest getting back in less than a year.

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