Jobless rate tops 10% in 15 states; five states post declines

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Fifteen states had unemployment rates exceeding 10% in June, up from 13 in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

New to the club: Alabama (now 10.1%, up from 9.8%) and Georgia (10.1% versus 9.6%).

The 10 states with the highest jobless rates are Michigan (15.2%), Rhode Island (12.4%), Oregon (12.2%), South Carolina (12.1%), Nevada (12.0%), California (11.6%), Ohio (11.1%), North Carolina (11.0%), Kentucky (10.9%) and Tennessee (10.8%). The District of Columbia’s rate was 10.9%.

All of the data are seasonally adjusted.

A potential glimmer of hope: Five states showed declines in their unemployment rates from May to June. By contrast, from April to May every state recorded a higher rate.

The states where the jobless rate fell were Mississippi (9.0% versus 9.7%), North Carolina (11.0% from 11.1%), North Dakota (4.2% from 4.3%), Oklahoma (6.3% from 6.4%) and Vermont (7.1% from 7.4%).

Unemployment rates can drop in cases where the labor force overall rises, not just because there were fewer unemployed workers. But all five of the states with lower June jobless rates also recorded a decline in the number of unemployed people.

California also had slightly fewer jobless workers in June than May, seasonally adjusted -- 2.146 million versus 2.152 million.

-- Tom Petruno