Employment Down in More Than Half of States

MoneyNews
Friday, March 28, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Employment fell in more than half of U.S. states during February, with Florida losing the most jobs, at 13,600, a Labor Department report showed Friday.
Michigan, for the eleventh month in a row, had the highest unemployment rate, at 7.2 percent, as the automobile industry continued to shed workers.

Only 19 states registered increases in unemployment rates during February, the department said.

South Dakota recorded the lowest rate at 2.6 percent and 20 states reported unemployment rates significantly below the U.S. national rate of 4.8 percent, which was down from 4.9 percent in January.

The state statistics mirrored the national trend, with the economy losing 63,000 jobs in February.

Economists Philippa Dunne and Doug Henwood of the New York-based newsletter The Liscio Report noted that states where development had dominated local economies, such as California and Florida, were hurt by a construction slowdown.

"Weakness in construction employment is really showing up in recent months," they wrote in a commentary. "There seems to be some weakening in the second-home states in the mountain west as well, with Idaho, Utah and Wyoming now losing construction jobs."

Even with the shake-up of the financial services and banking sector this winter, the unemployment rate in the country's money seat, New York, dropped to 4.5 percent from 5.0 percent in January.

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