Overall, the United States has had a lot of good news on the unemployment front over the past few years. Since the spring of 2011, the unemployment rate has fallen 4.1 percentage points from 9.1 percent down to 5.0 percent, which is close to an eight-year low. Additionally, 24/7 Wall Street reports, most states have added at least 100,000 new positions over this time period.
In April of 2011, Utah had 1.24 million jobs. In April of 2016, that number grew to 1.42 million, which marks a 14.5 percent increase, the largest in the nation over that time period. Utah’s professional and business services sector was responsible for the largest contribution to the growth and the state’s unemployment rate now sits at 3.8 percent, the 15th lowest in the U.S.
Delaware and Nevada took the second and third spots as each state experienced a 13.0 percent increase in the number of jobs. Education and health services contributed the most to Delaware’s increase, while professional business services was the largest portion of Nevada’s growth. South Carolina and Idaho rounded out the top five as both states saw the number of jobs grow by 12.1 percent.
However, not all states underwent growth. West Virginia actually lost 11,758 jobs for an employment decline of -1.6 percent. Wyoming (-1.5 percent), Vermont (-0.8 percent), Mississippi (-0.6 percent), and Alaska -0.2 percent) also lost jobs between 2011 and 2016. Meanwhile, New Mexico was the state with the smallest growth in its number of jobs at 0.3 percent.
For the full list of states and their employment changes, follow the link below.
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