November 2000 — 2000-12-22

Regional and state unemployment rates generally were stable in November. All four regions posted virtually no change over the month, and 38 states and the District of Columbia 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 was essentially unchanged at 4.0 percent. Nonfarm employment increased in 42 states and the District of Columbia in November. In November, the Midwest again recorded the lowest regional unemployment rate, 3.5 percent, while the West continued to report the highest rate, 4.5 percent. Over the year, jobless rates were little changed in three regions and down by 0.4 percentage point in the Northeast. (See table 1.) November marked the third straight month and the fifth time this year that New England had the lowest unemployment rate of the nine geographic divisions, a distinction the West North Central had held throughout the entire 1990s.