March 2, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Midwest jobless rate lowest for
eighth straight year
In 1998, the national unemployment
rate—based on annual averages—was 4.5 percent. The Midwest maintained the lowest
jobless rate (3.7 percent) of any region for the eighth year in a row, as every State in
the Midwest had a rate of 4.5 percent of less. The West region, where only Colorado and
Utah had rates below 4.0 percent, reported the highest unemployment rate (5.4 percent) for
the seventh straight year.
![Unemployment rates for regions and divisions, 1998 annual averages](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925085753im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/1999/Mar/wk1/art02.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
All four of the nation’s broad regions (Northeast, Midwest, South,
and West) and eight of their nine geographic divisions experienced unemployment rate
declines in 1998. The Northeast and South experienced the largest declines over the
year, -0.7 percentage point and –0.5 percentage point, respectively.
The Midwest’s West North Central division (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota) had the lowest unemployment rate of any division
(3.3 percent), as it has the past 9 years. The West's Pacific division (Alaska,
California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington) posted the highest jobless rate at 5.7
percent.
These data are a product of the Local Area
Unemployment Statistics program. More information can be found in news
release USDL 99-46, "State
and Regional Unemployment, 1998 Annual Averages." Â
Year-to-year comparisons are based on changes in annual average unemployment rates for
1998. For this story, the regional definitions of the Census Bureau, which divide the
country into four regions and nine component geographic divisions, were used.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
.
Read more »