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Unemployment rates fall in two-thirds of US states

L.A. County’s unemployment rate fell last month to 6.1 percent as the county added 38,000 jobs, state figures released Friday show.

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New Mexico’s unemployment rate in October 2014 was 6.2 percent. Overall, 40 states plus Washington, D.C., saw employment gains in October, nine states saw declines and DE was the same. “We had our best month for job growth in ten years, and the unemployment rate fell again”. West Virginia had the highest rate, 6.9 percent. “With more baby boomers retiring and leaving the workforce, we are seeing real impacts of the slowing labor growth”.

Since last month, Kansas gained 2,700 seasonally adjusted private sector jobs, or 0.2 percent. The biggest job gains occurred in California, which added 41,200, followed by Florida, with 35,200. It was 4.1 percent, down from 4.4 percent in September and decreased from 4.2 percent in October 2014.

California’s unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, was 5.7%, versus 5.5% in September and 7% a year earlier.

Unemployment in Dallas-Fort Worth was 4.0 percent, up from 3.9 percent in September, with Fort Worth-Arlington reporting a slightly higher rate of 4.2 percent. The job market continues to motor toward full employment, and we should be there by this time next year.’ – Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. There were also increases in the professional and business services area, plus the trade and transportation sector.

Year over year, seven major Arkansas industry sectors reported growth and four declined.

Even though Texas added jobs, the unemployment rate increased to 4.4 percent in October, up from 4.2 percent in September, but still more than a half-point lower than the national average.

In related data, the EDD reported that there were 334,244 people receiving regular Unemployment Insurance benefits during the October survey week.

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Most of the job gains came in the education and retail sectors, which do much of their hiring this time of year, while seasonal losses were apparent in the hospitality and leisure industry.

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