2005 Regional and State Unemployment — 2006-03-01

Annual average unemployment rates declined from 2004 to 2005 in nearly four-fifths of the states and all four regions, while employment-popula- tion ratios rose in over two-thirds of the states and in all four regions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The U.S. jobless rate dropped by 0.4 percentage point to 5.1 per- cent in 2005, while the national employment-population ratio increased by 0.4 point to 62.7 percent. Among the four regions, the Northeast and South reported the lowest jobless rates in 2005, 4.8 and 5.0 percent, respectively. The unemploy- ment rate in the West was 5.2 percent in 2005, while the rate in the Midwest, 5.4 percent, was the highest among the regions for the first time in 20 years. The range between the highest and lowest regional un- employment rates (0.6 percentage point) did not change over the year; the only year the range was smaller was 1990.