Regional And State Employment And Unemployment: August 2003 — 2003-09-19

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally stable in August. All four regions and 40 states recorded rate shifts of 0.3 percentage point or less from July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The national jobless rate was essentially unchanged at 6.1 percent in August. Nonfarm payroll employment decreased in 25 states and the District of Columbia in August. The South had the lowest unemployment rate among the regions in August, 5.6 percent, followed closely by the Northeast, 5.7 percent, and the Midwest, 5.8 percent. The West continued to post the highest rate, 6.4 percent. The Midwest reported the only unemployment rate change from a year earlier, an increase of 0.3 percentage point. (See table 1.) Among the nine geographic divisions, the West North Central continued to record the lowest jobless rate, 4.7 percent, followed by the South Atlantic division, 5.1 percent, and New England, 5.3 percent.