State Labor Markets in August 2023
|in:Viewpoints
State labor markets were generally lackluster in August. Only 5 states saw statistically significant increases in payroll, while 3 had declines. North Carolina picked up 17,500 jobs while Missouri lost 13,700. Montana a .7 percent increase; Hawaii a .8 percent loss.
10 states had statistically significant increases in unemployment from July to August, with New Jersey and Wisconsin both up .3 percentage points. North Dakota and South Carolina had significant .1 percentage point drops. Nevada continues to have the highest rate of any state in the nation, at 5.4 percent. Nevada, and DC had unemployment rates at least one point higher than the national average of 3.8 percent. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, both Dakotas, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia, were all at least a point lower, with Maryland at 1.7 percent.
Puerto Rico’s unemployment rate was an unchanged 6.2 percent. The island added 3,900 jobs, bringing the number above May’s recent high.
Charles Steindel
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Charles Steindel has been editor of Business Economics, the journal of the National Association for Business Economics, since 2016. From 2014 to 2021 he was Resident Scholar at the Anisfield School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey. From 2010 to 2014 he was the first Chief Economist of the New Jersey Department of the Treasury, with responsibilities for economic and revenue projections and analysis of state economic policy. He came to the Treasury after a long career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he played a major role in forecasting and policy advice and rose to the rank of Senior Vice-President. He has served in leadership positions in a number of professional organizations. In 2011 he received the William F. Butler Award from the New York Association for Business Economics, is a fellow of NABE and of the Money Marketeers of New York University, and has received several awards for articles published in Business Economics. In 2017 he delivered Ramapo College's Sebastian J. Raciti Memorial Lecture. He is a member of the panel for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Survey of Professional Forecasters and of the Committee on Research in Income and Wealth. He has published papers in a range of areas, and is the author of Economic Indicators for Professionals: Putting the Statistics into Perspective. He received his bachelor's degree from Emory University, his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is a National Association for Business Economics Certified Business EconomistTM.