State of the Facts
Why does USAFacts use US government data?
Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases a trove of employment data at the national, state, and metropolitan levels. This interactive experience brings that data together, allowing you to drill down and learn how local employment has changed in certain industries.
Hover over each state for more context and compare job gains again losses against each other. Use the headers to get the employment numbers and percent change in the country’s top metro areas.
Scroll further to dive further into the data. You'll see charts showing how individual metropolitan areas and industries are faring in each state. The data for major employment sectors nationwide and by state goes back through the past year.
Visit the historical unemployment data page or the hub on jobs and unemployment.
We wanted this experience to focus less on the national numbers and more on state, local and industry levels. Showing the national unemployment rate for one month when state and metro level data is available only from the month before makes a less cohesive experience. We do post the national unemployment rate on our unemployment dashboard.
The employment and unemployment rate measures are sourced from multiple programs within the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in order to provide a cohesive view at different levels of geography. Comparing measures across differing levels of geography typically trend similarly, but separate sources sometimes differ. The most prominent example of this is seen in December 2019, where employment numbers for nearly all states decrease but the nationally reported number increases. We are committed to reflecting on what the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes and have chosen to leave these values as they are instead of performing our own correction.
