If you’re looking for a job these days, the west is the best.
New data to be released by the Labor Department show that jobless people in South Carolina have been out of work almost four times longer, on average, than those in North Dakota.
The data, which the Labor department plans to release at the end of the month, are broken down by state, gender and race. The sample pool is drawn from about 60,500 eligible households in the Current Population Survey.
The survey examined the length of time Americans have been seeking work. It polled people based on how long they were unemployed at the time they were interviewed. Based on median numbers, here are the top four states where people have been looking for work the longest – and the shortest – amounts of time.
States with longest term unemployment:
Michigan: 27.3 weeks
Georgia: 28.4 weeks
New Jersey: 29 weeks
South Carolina: 29.2 weeks
States with the shortest term unemployment:
Alaska: 11.5 weeks
Montana: 11.2 weeks
South Dakota: 10.2 weeks
North Dakota: 7.6 weeks
Men were out of work the longest in Michigan (30.2 weeks) and New Jersey (30.4 weeks), while women were out of work the longest in Georgia (30.6 weeks) and Connecticut (29.5 weeks).
"The states with the longest unemployment were some of the states that were hit the hardest by the recession," said Marisa Di Natale, a director at Moody's Analytics. "Conversely, the states with the shortest term unemployment are all energy producing states, which barely had recessions at all. They've been among the strongest growing states, not only during the recession, but also during the recovery, mainly because of high energy prices."
Tip of the hat to the Wall Street Journal for first reporting on the survey.