- Illinois posted the sharpest drop in unemployment among all U.S. states last year.
- Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Unemployment fell in every state and the nation’s capital last year—something that hadn’t happened since 1984.
The broad decline, revealed in a Labor Department report Wednesday, offers the latest sign the labor market recovery kicked into a higher gear in 2014. The declines varied broadly.
Unemployment fell the most in Illinois, where the rate dropped 2 percentage points from the prior year to an average 7.1%. The rate declined by 1.8 points in Colorado, North Carolina and Ohio.
North Dakota, at the center of the nation’s energy boom of the past few years, had the lowest jobless rate of any state at 2.8% last year.
Unemployment across the entire U.S. fell 1.2 points to 6.2% last year.
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4 March 2015 | 7:11 pm – Source: blogs.wsj.com
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