March 05, 2007 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Lowest State unemployment rates in 2006

In 2006, Hawaii again reported the lowest unemployment rate among the States, 2.4 percent.

States with the lowest unemployment rates, 2006
[Chart data—TXT]

Utah had the next lowest rate, 2.9 percent, followed by Nebraska and Virginia at 3.0 percent each. Twelve additional States registered annual average unemployment rates below 4.0 percent.

Altogether, 20 States had jobless rates that were significantly below the U.S. rate of 4.6 percent, while 12 states and the District of Columbia recorded rates that were appreciably above it. The rates for 18 States were not significantly different from the overall U.S. rate.

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program. To learn more, see Regional and State Unemployment, 2006 Annual Averages (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 07-0305.

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED