Nevada Continues To Reign Supreme In Latest Unemployment Numbers

Since the bottom dropped out of the housing market a few years ago, and even as most other locales have begun to claw their way out of the pits, Nevada and California have continued to churn out huge unemployment numbers. And the latest stats from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows no real reversal in that trend.

The report looks at six different measures for unemployment from the third quarter of 2011 through the second quarter of 2012.

For the “official” unemployment numbers — total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force — Nevada has by far the highest percentage (12.3%), followed by California and Rhode Island (each with 11.2% each). South Carolina (10%) was the only other state with a double-digit unemployment rate according to this measure.

When it comes to the percentage of the civilian workforce who lost their jobs or completed temp job assignments during this time period, Nevada was once again on top with 7.7%, once again followed by California (6.5%).

Want to take a guess which states also have the highest measure of unemployed plus “discouraged” workers who have given up looking for work? We’ll just tell you anyway, because you’d probably already guessed Nevada (13.4%), followed by another tie between California and Rhode Island (11.8%)

The truly depressing number for everyone is the U-6 stat, which adds up the all the people who are unemployed, discouraged, marginally attached, and those working part-time only because of economic factors.

According to that stat, more than 1-in-5 of both Nevada’s (22.1%) and California’s (20.3%) respective workforces re either not working or hanging on by a shoestring.

You can look at the full chart — and see how your state is doing — here.

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