State Labor Markets in September 2022
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Summary
State labor market results in September were on the whole mixed. Only 9 states experienced statistically significant increases in payrolls, with New Hampshire's .8 percent gain the only one larger than ½ of one percent; however, Delaware saw a statistically significant drop of .6 percent. On the positive side Florida gained 48,800 jobs and Texas picked up 40,000. Over the last 12 months, every state (and DC) saw a gain in payrolls, though in Mississippi the increase was not deemed to be statistically significant. Texas's 5.6 increase was (again) the largest, Louisiana saw a 5.2 percent increased, Florida was up 5.1 percent, and Georgia 5.0 percent. Aside from Mississippi, Ohio had the smallest increase (1.7 percent).
11 states saw statistically significant increases in their unemployment rates in September, but the largest was only .3 percentage point (Rhode Island, form 2.8 to 3.1 percent). 9 states saw statistically significant declines, led by New Jersey's .7 percentage point plunge (more or less evenly split between an increase in employment and a drop in the labor force). The range of state unemployment rates is now fairly narrow—from Minnesota's 2.0 percent to Alaska's 4.4 (the latter is a record low for the state). DC's rate was 4.7 percent.
Hurricane Fiona prevented the computation of Puerto Rico's September labor force and unemployment data. Payrolls on the island were virtually unchanged (the pont estimate was down 100).
Viewpoint commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
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.