State Economic Snapshots

January 26, 2017

State Economic Snapshots This monthly report provides a snapshot of the status of the economic recovery in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This month’s snapshots include state-level data on jobs, unemployment and earnings through December 2016. 1 Highlights • Private-sector employment increased in 27 states and the District of Columbia in December. • Over 2016, 41 states and the District of Columbia gained private-sector jobs. • The unemployment rate fell last month in 32 states and the District of Columbia. • Average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, increased in 29 states and the District of Columbia over the past year. Private-Sector Job Gains Private-sector employment increased in 27 states and the District of Columbia in December. The largest private-sector gains were in Virginia (13,600), Ohio (11,700), Massachusetts (11,300), New York (9,000) and Minnesota (8,200). On a percentage basis, the largest gains were in Hawaii, Virginia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Washington, New Mexico, Alaska and Oregon. Over 2016, 41 states and the District of Columbia gained private-sector jobs, with California (270,600), Florida (237,300), Texas (172,600), New York (110,400) and Georgia (90,500) recording the largest increases. The largest percentage gains in private-sector employment during this period were in Oregon (3.4 percent), Florida (3.3 percent), Utah, Washington and Nevada (3.2 percent each). Nationally, 2.0 million private-sector jobs were added in the past year, a 1.6 percent increase. Unemployment The unemployment rate declined in 32 states and the District of Columbia in December. The declines were statistically significant in 10 states. Oregon had the largest decline (-0.4 percentage point) that was significant followed by Connecticut, Missouri and New Jersey (-0.3 percentage point each). Over 2016, 36 states and the District of Columbia reported declines in the unemployment rate. Eleven states had declines that were statistically significant, with the largest of these declines in Massachusetts (2.1 percentage points), Mississippi, Nevada and South Carolina (-1.2 percentage points each) and Arizona (-1.1 percentage point). Two states had statistically significant increases. New Hampshire (2.6 percent each) had the lowest unemployment rate in December, followed by Massachusetts and South Dakota (2.8 percent each). Alaska (6.7 percent) had the highest unemployment rate, followed by New Mexico (6.6 percent), Alabama (6.2 percent), Louisiana (6.1 percent), West Virginia

1

Individual monthly readings should be interpreted with caution and in the context of longer-term trends and other data that become available. Changes in state-level data from month to month may not be statistically significant due to sampling variation, which occurs because a sample rather than the entire population is surveyed.

State Economic Snapshots—page 2

(5.9 percent) and the District of Columbia (5.8 percent). The national unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in December, down from 5.0 percent one year ago. Earnings Average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, increased in 29 states and the District of Columbia over the past year. The largest earnings gains were posted in Missouri (6.2 percent), the District of Columbia (5.8 percent), Delaware (5.1 percent), Tennessee (4.2 percent) and Oregon (4.1 percent). Earnings declined in 18 states and were unchanged in three. Nationally, real average hourly earnings increased by 0.8 percent (not seasonally adjusted) in the past year. The District of Columbia ($39.86) had the highest average hourly earnings in December, followed by Massachusetts ($32.05), Washington ($30.67) Connecticut ($30.59), and California ($29.33). Key Employment Sectors Manufacturing Manufacturing employment expanded in 31 states during December. The largest increases were in Pennsylvania (5,400), Tennessee (3,300), Wisconsin (3,000), Indiana (2,700), Alaska, Arizona and California (1,500 each). On a percentage basis, the largest gains were in Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Arizona. Over 2016, 20 states added manufacturing positions. On a percentage basis, the biggest gains were in Alaska (6.1 percent), Montana (4.2 percent), Utah (3.8 percent), Idaho (2.8 percent) and Florida (2.0 percent). Across the country, 45,000 manufacturing positions have been lost in the last 12 months, a 0.4 percent decrease. Construction Construction employment increased in 26 states and the District of Columbia during December. The largest gains were reported in Arizona, Massachusetts (3,700 each), Minnesota (3,500), Tennessee and Wisconsin (2,700 each). The largest percentage gains during the month were in Vermont, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Nevada and Minnesota. Over 2016, 32 states added construction jobs. The greatest percentage gains over the past year were in Nevada (15.3 percent), Oregon (9.0 percent), Iowa (8.3 percent), Minnesota (8.0 percent) and Washington (7.6 percent). Nationally, over this period, construction employment increased by 102,000 positions, a 1.6 percent increase. Professional and Business Services Professional and business services employment increased in 24 states and the District of Columbia during December. The largest increases were posted in New York (7,100), Ohio (5,900), Georgia (5,400), Virginia (4,200) and Arizona (4,100). The largest percentage gains were in Vermont, Hawaii, Arizona, Iowa and New Hampshire. In 2016, 37 states and the District of Columbia added jobs in professional and business services. The largest percentage gains were in Oregon (7.3 percent), Delaware (5.7 percent), Utah (5.4 percent), Georgia (4.9 percent) and North Carolina (4.3 percent). The U.S. economy overall has added 522,000 professional and business services jobs during this time, a 2.6 percent increase.

State Economic Snapshots—page 3

Job Growth in America: Change in Private-Sector Jobs Unemployment Rate (December 2016) New Hampshire Massachusetts South Dakota Hawaii Colorado North Dakota Utah Vermont Nebraska Iowa Idaho Maine Arkansas Minnesota Indiana Montana Wisconsin Virginia Kansas Maryland Delaware South Carolina Connecticut Missouri Oregon Texas New Jersey UNITED STATES Arizona Kentucky Wyoming Florida New York Ohio Tennessee Michigan Oklahoma Rhode Island Nevada North Carolina California Washington Georgia Mississippi Pennsylvania Illinois District of Columbia West Virginia Louisiana Alabama New Mexico Alaska Puerto Rico

2.6% 2.8% 2.8% 2.9% 3.0% 3.0% 3.1% 3.1% 3.4% 3.6% 3.7% 3.8% 3.9% 3.9% 4.0% 4.0% 4.0% 4.1% 4.2% 4.2% 4.3% 4.3% 4.4% 4.4% 4.6% 4.6% 4.7% 4.7% 4.8% 4.8% 4.8% 4.9% 4.9% 4.9% 4.9% 5.0% 5.0% 5.0% 5.1% 5.1% 5.2% 5.2% 5.4% 5.6% 5.6% 5.7% 5.8% 5.9% 6.1% 6.2% 6.6% 6.7% 12.4%

**Data through December 2016** UNITED STATES Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Since Before Recession Under President Obama (December 2007) (January 2009) Percentage 6.1% -2.5% 7.3% 2.6% 2.4% 8.5% 11.6% -0.7% 4.1% 16.0% 8.2% 7.8% 4.7% 7.4% 0.7% 3.8% 4.1% 0.7% 3.8% 5.0% -0.9% 3.5% 8.7% 4.6% 5.8% -2.7% 2.2% 4.5% 5.5% 1.1% 5.2% 1.2% -1.8% 9.7% 5.1% 23.8% 2.5% 2.6% 7.5% 2.8% -8.7% 1.7% 6.7% 7.5% 7.4% 16.7% 13.6% 1.5% 4.7% 10.3% -1.4% 2.4% -8.2%

Net Jobs 7,043,000 -41,000 17,200 58,200 23,400 1,107,200 229,400 -9,900 15,600 74,500 559,200 269,800 23,900 39,900 33,800 96,100 51,900 8,000 59,200 78,500 -4,700 74,100 251,700 164,900 136,200 -24,600 52,900 16,000 43,900 12,600 28,900 41,000 -11,500 703,600 177,100 68,200 113,400 32,900 107,900 141,000 -62,800 7,300 106,400 25,100 176,200 1,461,400 143,300 3,700 146,400 253,500 -8,500 60,100 -18,500

Percentage Net Jobs 10.4% 11,606,000 3.2% 49,200 6.7% 15,900 10.6% 221,600 5.2% 50,000 14.0% 1,727,000 14.8% 284,400 2.2% 31,200 8.7% 31,400 15.4% 72,100 16.9% 1,065,800 13.8% 452,800 10.9% 51,800 14.5% 73,500 4.5% 223,500 9.8% 236,600 6.2% 77,300 1.7% 19,000 8.6% 127,100 5.7% 88,900 2.1% 10,700 6.8% 139,800 11.4% 320,200 14.0% 462,300 8.7% 199,000 2.1% 18,400 5.2% 119,200 8.4% 29,100 6.7% 53,100 10.4% 108,100 7.8% 42,400 5.1% 168,800 1.7% 10,800 11.5% 823,600 11.1% 364,600 22.4% 64,900 7.5% 328,700 3.6% 45,100 14.4% 195,400 5.2% 255,500 -4.6% -31,900 6.4% 25,800 13.3% 199,700 7.7% 25,600 13.2% 298,900 17.4% 1,515,400 19.4% 194,700 4.5% 11,200 7.7% 230,900 13.7% 327,600 -0.5% -3,000 5.6% 134,000 -7.8% -17,600

State Economic Snapshots—page 4