Courtesy of MIRS News Service
Its unemployment rate once the nation’s highest, Michigan can now claim its jobless percentage doesn’t crack the Top 10.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that Michigan’s 6.3 percent unemployment rate ties it with Alaska and Washington for the country’s 12th highest rate.
Mississippi has the highest rate at 7.2 percent, followed by California at 7.0 percent, Georgia at 6.9 percent, Nevada and Rhode Island (6.8 percent), Arizona, Oregon, Louisiana (6.7 percent), Tennessee (6.6 percent), South Carolina 6.5 percent and Connecticut (6.4 percent).
Michigan’s .4 percentage point drop in December 2014 tied with North Carolina for the country’s largest decrease, behind Delaware (.6 percentage point). North Dakota had the lowest jobless rate at 2.8 percent.
In total, 19 states had unemployment rates significantly lower than the U.S. figure of 5.6 percent, according to BLS. Ten states and the District of Columbia had what was defined as “measurably higher rates.” The final 21 were not “appreciably different from that of the nation.”