Which states have the lowest unemployment rate in 2024?
Unemployment has risen slightly in most states since this time last year. A look at those shifts and which states have the lowest levels of joblessness.
In May, the national unemployment rate rose to 4 percent for the first time since January 2022. Last month, it increased to 4.1 percent, with nearly a million more workers categorized as unemployed compared to the figure captured a year earlier. The total number captured in June was 6.811 million, up from 5.997 million twelve months earlier.
A concerning but expected trend has materialized since the federal government ended the pandemic-related unemployment benefits in September 2021. When those benefits were sent, many more unemployed workers qualified for benefits that typically wouldn’t. Therefore, the percentage of unemployed workers receiving payments increased. In January 2021, nearly fifty percent of the more than 10 million jobless workers were receiving benefits. Today, that figure has fallen to just under 27 percent, one of the lowest levels ever recorded. Many workers who currently have a job might remember the hardships they faced claiming benefits after being laid off in March and April 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in the US. Very little has been done to improve the systems used to claim and distribute benefits, and the strict rules surrounding who is eligible mean less than a third of unemployed workers receive benefits.
Shifts in unemployment over the last year
Though unemployment has begun to trend upward, some states are still reporting record-low rates, a sign that the labor markets in those geographies remain tight. A year ago, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Vermont at 1.7 percent.
Lowest unemployment rates in May 2023
- Vermont: 1.7 percent
- North Dakota: 1.8 percent
- New Hampshire: 1.8 percent
- South Dakota: 1.9 percent
- Maryland: 1.9 percent
- Nebraska: 2.1 percent
- Alabama: 2.3 percent
- Utah: 2.5 percent
- Maine: 2.5 percent
- Virginia: 2.6 percent
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
By May 2024, North and South Dakota had overtaken Vermont for the top spots, with an unemployment rate of 2 percent. Vermont remained in the third slot, with a rate of 2.1 percent. Now, the most up-to-date list published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics looks like this:
- North Dakota: 2 percent
- South Dakota: 2 percent
- Vermont: 2.1 percent
- Nebraska: 2.5 percent
- New Hampshire: 2.5 percent
- Maryland: 2.7 percent
- Virginia: 2.7 percent
- Iowa: 2.8 percent
- Minnesota: 2.8 percent
- Mississippi: 2.8 percent
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Replacing Alabama, Utah, and Maine on the list of the ten states with the lowest unemployment rate are Iowa, Minnesota, and Mississippi.
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