September 22, 2008 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Over-the-month changes in State unemployment rates, August 2008

State unemployment rates were mostly higher in August.

Number of States with over-the-month unemployment rate increases, decreases, and no change, August 2008
[Chart data—TXT]

Overall, 44 states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 5 States registered decreases, and 1 State had no change.

Connecticut, Louisiana, and Rhode Island posted the largest unemployment rate increases from July to August (+0.7 percentage point each).

These data come from the BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. More State unemployment statistics are available in "Regional and State Employment and Unemployment: August 2008," (PDF) (HTML) news release USDL 08-1310.

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