25 States Experience Near-Record-Low Unemployment

Unemployment dropped in 11 states in June compared to the previous month, while remaining stable in the other 39 states and the District of Columbia.

The national unemployment remained at 3.6%, which was little changed from the previous month and the same as a year earlier, in June 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said in a Friday (July 21) press release.

Compared to a year earlier, jobless rates were lower in 22 states, little changed in 20 states, and higher in eight states and the District of Columbia, according to the release.

In 25 states, the unemployment rates were at or with 0.1 percentage point of their record lows, since the BLS started keeping records in 1976, Bloomberg reported Friday.

“The strength of the job market has both confounded economists and bolstered hope the U.S. economy may ultimately be able to skirt a recession despite a rapid increase in interest rates,” the report said. “And while there are cracks beginning to form — as evident in certain states like California — the broader picture remains one of resilience.”

California’s unemployment rate is 0.7 percentage point higher than it was a year ago, now standing at 4.6%, after experiencing a disproportionate share of job losses in the tech sector, according to the report.

The job cuts at companies in or adjacent to the tech sector have continued in July with Amazon laying off a “small number” of employees in its Pharmacy business as the latest step in its largest job reduction in the company’s 29 years, Circle making a “marginal” reduction in its workforce and decreasing or ending investments in “non-core activities,” and Freightos reducing its headcount by 50 employees as part of its plan to cut costs and boost efficiency.

The nation’s unemployment rate of 3.6% remains within the 3.4% to 3.7% range it has been in since March 2022, according to the BLS.

The BLS state unemployment report released Friday comes two weeks after a jobs report that the number of jobs added in June was the lowest since the decline seen in December 2020. The 209,000 jobs added during the month was lower than the 306,000 jobs added in May and the 225,000 jobs that economists had expected, CNN reported July 7.