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Unemployment Rate Drops, Labor Force Ticks Up

Maine’s unemployment rate was less than the New England rate of 4.4 percent.

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L.A. County’s unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent in May, the first time it has fallen below 5 percent in nine years, according to state figures released Friday.

“The unemployment rate in the greater Sacramento area was 4.7 percent in May, down from a revised 5.1 percent in April 2016 and below the year ago estimate of 5.7 percent”, says Welch.

The May rate sets a new monthly low for Arkansas since at least 1957, which is as far back as employment records go. The state with the highest rate is Alaska at 6.7 percent, followed by IL at 6.4 percent and Louisiana at 6.3 percent.

Many states with very low unemployment rates are small.

“It would be very hard for Arkansas to continue to see unemployment this low if the national economy weakens a bit”, Deck said.

“Oregon’s economy has been growing faster than the USA economy for a number of years”, said David Cook, an economist for the Employment Department.

Nebraska’s preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May was three percent according to the Nebraska Department of Labor.

Over the year, total nonfarm jobs in Pennsylvania were up 39,200 (+0.7%).

The state has added jobs nearly every single month since July 2011 and has recently been expanding employment faster than the rest of the nation.

The state’s total unemployment rate remained at 4.2% in May, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced Thursday.

The number of workers unemployed in OH in May was 300,000, down 2,000 from 302,000 in April. Kauai County’s rate decreased to 3.4 percent from 3.6 percent.

“We have more work to do matching people to jobs, as there are more than 60,000 jobs available across the state”, she said. Manufacturing employment decreased 4,800 as losses in durable goods (-11,500) exceeded gains in nondurable goods (+6,700).

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Leisure and hospitality gained 4,800 jobs (+1.4%) over the month. Those jobs include lawyers, accountants, architects, engineers, software developers, consultants and many other professional types of work.

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