{"chart":{"slug":"unemployment-rate-by-state","title":"Which states have the highest unemployment?","takeaway":"In September 2026, District of Columbia had the highest unemployment rate, 5.6%, followed by California (5.1%) and Connecticut (5.1%). South Dakota had the lowest at 2.0%, and the US rate was 4.2%. Rates are BLS monthly estimates for each state, seasonally adjusted.","topic":"Jobs and wages","chart_type":"bar","ranking":true,"x_label":"State","y_label":"Percent of the labor force unemployed, seasonally adjusted","unit":"percent","points_count":52,"source":{"name":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics","url":"https://www.bls.gov/lau/"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.bls.gov/opub/copyright-information.htm"},"data_as_of":"2026-09-30","updated_at":"2026-10-20T16:54:51.704Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state/embed","credit":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state)","credit_html":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":"U.S. average","zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"District of Columbia","value":5.6},{"label":"California","value":5.1},{"label":"Connecticut","value":5.1},{"label":"Michigan","value":5.0},{"label":"Oregon","value":5.0},{"label":"Arizona","value":4.9},{"label":"Washington","value":4.8},{"label":"Kentucky","value":4.7},{"label":"Nevada","value":4.7},{"label":"New Mexico","value":4.7},{"label":"Delaware","value":4.6},{"label":"Illinois","value":4.6},{"label":"Minnesota","value":4.5},{"label":"Florida","value":4.4},{"label":"Texas","value":4.4},{"label":"Alaska","value":4.3},{"label":"Massachusetts","value":4.3},{"label":"New York","value":4.3},{"label":"New Jersey","value":4.2},{"label":"Oklahoma","value":4.2},{"label":"U.S. average","value":4.2},{"label":"Colorado","value":4.1},{"label":"Louisiana","value":4.0},{"label":"South Carolina","value":4.0},{"label":"West Virginia","value":4.0},{"label":"Arkansas","value":3.9},{"label":"Maryland","value":3.9},{"label":"Kansas","value":3.8},{"label":"Idaho","value":3.6},{"label":"Missouri","value":3.6},{"label":"Pennsylvania","value":3.6},{"label":"Rhode Island","value":3.6},{"label":"Virginia","value":3.6},{"label":"Alabama","value":3.5},{"label":"Utah","value":3.5},{"label":"Indiana","value":3.4},{"label":"North Carolina","value":3.4},{"label":"Ohio","value":3.4},{"label":"Tennessee","value":3.4},{"label":"Georgia","value":3.3},{"label":"Maine","value":3.3},{"label":"Mississippi","value":3.3},{"label":"Iowa","value":3.2},{"label":"Wisconsin","value":3.2},{"label":"Montana","value":3.1},{"label":"Wyoming","value":3.0},{"label":"Nebraska","value":2.9},{"label":"Hawaii","value":2.8},{"label":"New Hampshire","value":2.6},{"label":"Vermont","value":2.6},{"label":"North Dakota","value":2.2},{"label":"South Dakota","value":2.0}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/unemployment-rate-by-state)"}