Regional And State Employment And Unemployment: June 2002 — 2002-07-23

Most regional and state unemployment rates were stable from May to June and remained higher than a year earlier. All 4 regions reported little or no change from May, and 43 states recorded shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The national jobless rate, 5.9 percent, was essentially unchanged in June. Nonfarm employment increased in 25 states in June. In June, the Midwest, Northeast, and South regions each recorded unemployment rates of 5.3 percent, while the West continued to experience the highest rate, 6.1 percent. All four regions posted rate increases from last June, ranging from 0.6 percentage point in the South to 1.0 point in the Northeast and West. (See table 1.) Among the nine geographic divisions, New England and the West North Central continued to register the lowest unemployment rates, 4.3 percent each in June.