14 states hit record-low unemploymentBy Reid Wilson - 04/23/18 11:21 AM EDT
Fourteen states have set new records for low unemployment rates in the last year, nearly a decade after the recession put millions of Americans out of work.
The states hitting new unemployment lows run the ideological gamut, from conservative Texas to liberal California, suggesting a recovery stronger than any particular political persuasion.
In March, eight states saw new record lows, including Hawaii (2.1 percent), Idaho (2.9 percent), Kentucky (4 percent ), Maine (2.7 percent), Mississippi (4.5 percent), Oregon (4.1 percent) and Wisconsin (2.9 percent).
California also set a new record last month. The Golden State’s unemployment rate stands at 4.1 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s the lowest rate recorded since BLS began keeping track of state-level unemployment figures in 1976, and it’s a third of the 12.3 percent unemployment rate California notched at the height of the recession in December 2010.
Colorado’s unemployment rate is just 2.6 percent, among the lowest in the nation, and a third of the 8.9 percent peak it hit in 2010.
In Alabama, just 3.7 percent of workers are unemployed. Arkansas reached a 3.6 percent unemployment rate last May, its lowest rate ever.
North Dakota set its own record last year. Texas hit a 3.9 percent unemployment rate in November, after peaking at 8.3 percent during the height of the recession. Tennessee fell to the lowest unemployment rate it has ever measured, 3.3 percent, in January.
Hawaii’s unemployment rate is the lowest in the nation, BLS said. Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Wisconsin all have unemployment rates lower than 3 percent.
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http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/384414-14-states-hit-record-low-unemployment