Unemployment Benefits Claims US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Unemployment Rates Largely Unchanged

March 13, 2012 - PRLog -- US Bureau of Labor statistics News - The latest Regional and State Employment and Unemployment statistics report for January 2012 was released earlier today, March 13, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT). Their report shows that in January, 45 states and the District of Columbia have reported unemployment rate decreases since December 2011, 1 state had an increase, and 4 states did not report any change. While actual changes in unemployment benefits claims statistics are unclear, the US jobless rate decreased to 8.3% from December 2011 and was 0.8% lower than in January 2011. To check if you have applied for all available unemployment benefit programs visit this page:

http://www.ultraseeker.com/unemployment/#benefits

The US Bureau of Labor 's December 2011 release indicated that unemployment rates had decreased slightly. North Dakota (3.3%), Nebraska (4.1%), and South Dakota (4.2%) showed the lowest unemployment rates. Nevada (12.6%), California (11.1%) and Rhode Island (10.8%) had the highest unemployment rates reported. The new report is expected to reflect the downward trend seen in January 2011's 8.3% overall US unemployment rate compared to 8.5% the previous month. To apply for all available unemployment benefit programs visit this page:

http://www.ultraseeker.com/unemployment/#apply

Many people are unaware that they are elligible for unemployment benefits from non-government sources as well as state and federal aid. The assistance available includes grants, job placement assistance, carreer training, financial aid, mortgage assistance and unemployment insurance extensions. Of the $6 billion allocated by the government for the new Job Act, a large portion of the funds available to help americans recover from job loss and offer temporary relief from credit card debt, mortgage, and other bills is available by applying online. See the following site for details.

http://www.ultraseeker.com/unemployment/


Summary data from this March 13, 2012 US Bureau of Labor statistics release.

Regional Unemployment (Seasonally Adjusted)

The West continued to record the highest regional unemployment rate in
January, 9.6 percent, while the Midwest again reported the lowest rate,
7.7 percent. The Midwest, South, and West experienced statistically
significant over-the-month unemployment rate changes (-0.2 percentage
point each). The same three regions also registered measurable over-
the-year rate decreases--the West (-1.1 percentage points),
Midwest (-0.9 point), and South (-0.8 point). (See table 1.)

Among the nine geographic divisions, the Pacific continued to report
the highest jobless rate, 10.2 percent in January. The West North
Central again registered the lowest rate, 5.9 percent. Six divisions
experienced statistically significant unemployment rate declines over
the month. The largest of these occurred in the East South Central and
South Atlantic (-0.3 percentage point each). All of the divisions experienced
unemployment rate declines from a year earlier, eight of which were
statistically significant. The largest declines were recorded in the
East South Central and Pacific (-1.2 percentage points each).

State Unemployment (Seasonally Adjusted)

Nevada continued to record the highest unemployment rate among the
states, 12.7 percent in January. California and Rhode Island posted
the next highest rates, 10.9 percent each. North Dakota again
registered the lowest jobless rate, 3.2 percent, followed by Nebraska,
4.0 percent. In total, 24 states reported jobless rates significantly
lower than the U.S. figure of 8.3 percent, 8 states and the District
of Columbia had measurably higher rates, and 18 states had rates that
were not appreciably different from that of the nation. (See tables A
and 3.)

Fourteen states experienced statistically significant over-the-month
unemployment rate declines in January. The largest of these were in
Mississippi and Missouri (-0.5 percentage point each). The remaining
36 states and the District of Columbia recorded jobless rates that
were not measurably different from those of a month earlier, though
some had changes that were at least as large numerically as the
significant changes. (See table B.)

Michigan registered the largest jobless rate decrease from January
2011 (-1.9 percentage points), followed by Utah (-1.8 points). Twenty
additional states reported smaller but also statistically significant
decreases over the year. The remaining 28 states and the District of
Columbia recorded unemployment rates in January 2012 that were not appreciably
different from those of a year earlier. (See table C.)
Table A.  States with unemployment rates significantly differ-
ent from that of the U.S., January 2012, seasonally adjusted  
--------------------------------------------------------------
               State                |          Rate(p)      
--------------------------------------------------------------
United States (1) ...................|           8.3          
                                    |                        
Alaska ..............................|           7.2          
California ..........................|          10.9          
Delaware ............................|           7.0          
District of Columbia ................|           9.9          
Florida .............................|           9.6          
Georgia .............................|           9.2          
Hawaii ..............................|           6.5          
Illinois ............................|           9.4          
Iowa ................................|           5.4          
Kansas ..............................|           6.1          
                                    |                        
Louisiana ...........................|           6.9          
Maine ...............................|           7.0          
Maryland ............................|           6.5          
Massachusetts .......................|           6.9          
Minnesota ...........................|           5.6          
Mississippi .........................|           9.9          
Montana .............................|           6.5          
Nebraska ............................|           4.0          
Nevada ..............................|          12.7          
New Hampshire .......................|           5.2          
                                    |                        
New Mexico ..........................|           7.0          
North Carolina ......................|          10.2          
North Dakota ........................|           3.2          
Oklahoma ............................|           6.1          
Pennsylvania ........................|           7.6          
Rhode Island ........................|          10.9          
South Dakota ........................|           4.2          
Texas ...............................|           7.3          
Utah ................................|           5.7          
Vermont .............................|           5.0          
                                    |                        
Virginia ............................|           5.8          
Wisconsin ...........................|           6.9          
Wyoming .............................|           5.5          
--------------------------------------------------------------
  1 Data are not preliminary.
  p = preliminary.
References:
http://www.bls.gov/