December’s jobs report showed an above-average level of hiring. The economy gained 256,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, exceeding the average monthly gain of 186,000 over the past 12 months. In December, there were notable gains in sectors including health care, government, and social assistance, and the overall unemployment rate was 4.1%. With the U.S. having gained those 256,000 jobs in December, WalletHub today released updated rankings for its report on Changes in Unemployment Rate by State and Arizona is doing well, ranking No. 4 among state with the biggest decrease in unemployment.


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In order to take stock of how unemployment rates are changing throughout the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on six key metrics that compare unemployment rate statistics from the latest month for which data is available (December 2024) to key dates in 2024, 2023, 2020 and 2019.

Main Findings

Source: WalletHub
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Unemployment Rate Changes by State

Overall Rank StateUnemployment Rate (December 2024) Change in Unemployment (December 2024 vs November 2024) Change in Unemployment (December 2024 vs December 2023) Change in Unemployment (December 2024 vs December 2020) Change in Unemployment (December 2024 vs December 2019) Not Seasonally Adjusted Continued Claims (December 2024 vs November 2024) 
1South Dakota1.9%0.3%-7.0%-36.3%-25.6%70.9%
2Connecticut3.0%0.8%-28.2%-57.2%-20.8%14.2%
3New Hampshire2.6%2.9%0.6%-42.1%-0.1%10.5%
4Hawaii3.0%1.7%-3.3%-70.9%27.4%-7.0%
5Vermont2.4%2.9%9.2%-38.7%23.6%28.2%
6Virginia3.0%-0.2%-1.8%-36.4%11.0%3.5%
7Montana3.1%-3.8%-5.1%-21.1%-7.3%38.0%
8Oklahoma3.3%-0.7%-6.1%-32.9%12.8%0.9%
9Wisconsin3.0%2.7%-11.1%-38.5%-4.3%41.9%
10Maryland3.1%0.7%42.3%-52.0%-7.9%4.4%
11Nebraska2.8%1.1%14.0%-4.0%-7.7%41.4%
12Delaware3.7%-3.3%-9.7%-30.7%8.5%3.2%
13Florida3.4%0.4%11.3%-41.6%20.8%-3.2%
14Minnesota3.3%-4.2%21.3%-30.0%-2.2%42.2%
15Arkansas3.4%2.3%-6.0%-28.8%0.1%2.8%
16Mississippi3.3%8.1%8.3%-48.4%-40.1%11.4%
17Pennsylvania3.6%2.6%5.7%-52.8%-20.2%18.1%
18Arizona3.8%1.4%-8.9%-38.2%-13.2%-4.7%
19North Dakota2.5%1.9%31.6%-41.1%24.6%99.5%
20North Carolina3.7%-0.1%5.1%-30.0%4.3%-2.4%
21Maine3.2%4.7%-2.9%-20.0%3.3%34.6%
22Wyoming3.5%4.0%22.1%-35.0%-17.7%9.4%
23Alabama3.3%4.6%19.6%-24.9%8.6%1.6%
24Missouri3.7%-2.0%14.8%-24.2%11.3%11.0%
25Tennessee3.6%3.9%5.5%-34.4%6.4%5.3%
26Iowa3.2%1.7%3.7%-23.1%15.2%62.3%
27Georgia3.7%0.1%16.3%-24.1%9.9%1.3%
28West Virginia4.2%-1.1%-3.0%-32.9%-20.5%30.6%
29New York4.4%-0.5%-4.7%-49.0%7.4%9.3%
30New Mexico4.4%0.3%12.5%-45.2%-10.2%3.0%
31Utah3.5%-1.5%25.2%4.0%57.9%18.3%
32Oregon4.1%1.7%5.2%-35.6%28.2%7.8%
33Louisiana4.4%2.9%10.7%-39.8%-9.5%-5.2%
34Texas4.2%0.3%11.2%-33.1%33.8%8.7%
35Washington4.5%-2.1%1.8%-29.0%21.3%9.4%
36New Jersey4.6%-1.2%-4.1%-33.5%20.0%5.8%
37Kansas3.6%3.3%42.1%-16.3%19.4%37.2%
38Alaska4.7%0.3%2.3%-32.7%-10.7%9.5%
39Massachusetts4.1%3.6%30.3%-44.0%40.4%19.8%
40Ohio4.4%1.3%23.1%-28.1%0.3%28.2%
41Idaho3.8%1.6%17.5%-1.5%50.6%54.0%
42Rhode Island4.6%0.1%38.4%-31.3%35.3%22.9%
43Colorado4.4%3.7%34.2%-27.0%63.3%6.4%
44Indiana4.5%1.3%31.4%-8.3%38.3%15.2%
45District of Columbia5.5%-1.0%13.2%-22.1%3.9%4.5%
46Illinois5.2%-1.7%11.8%-28.6%43.3%31.5%
47California5.5%0.6%7.2%-37.2%30.9%9.4%
48Michigan5.0%3.2%21.6%-23.8%34.9%25.3%
49South Carolina4.7%-1.6%59.6%5.0%93.9%2.6%
50Nevada5.7%0.7%9.1%-36.1%42.5%4.2%
51Kentucky5.2%2.9%25.3%15.1%29.5%26.9%

Methodology

In order to examine changes in unemployment rates throughout the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two categories. In the first category, we compared the change in unemployment for the latest month for which we had data (December 2024) to November 2024, December 2023, December 2020 and December 2019, in order to show the impact since the beginning of the pandemic and the recent changes in the job market amid high inflation. We also compared not seasonally adjusted continued claims in December 2024 to November 2024. In the second category, we looked at the state’s overall unemployment rate. We then used the average of those categories to rank-order the states.