California’s unemployment rate rose in December. How does it compare to other states?

California’s unemployment rate increased once again in December, keeping it among the highest in the country, according to the U..S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Unemployment in the state rose to 5.5%, which means more than one million Californians were out of work, the agency said in a report Tuesday.

The unemployment rate in California was up 0.1% from November and 0.4% from December 2023, according to the report.

This growth is not considered out of the ordinary, according to Loree Levy, a representative for the California Employment Development Department.

“When you’re talking about an unemployment rate that has gone up 0.4% over a year, there’s just been a lot of holding steady and very slow (growth),” Levy said.

The last time California had a 5.5% unemployment rate was December 2021, according to data from the Employment Development Department.

How does California unemployment compare to rest of US?

As of Thursday, California had the second-highest unemployment rate in the United States, tying with the District of Columbia.

The only state with a higher unemployment rate was Nevada, with 5.7%.

Unemployment rates in two other West Coast states were at least 1% lower than California.

Washington state had an 4.5% unemployment rate, and Oregon had an unemployment rate of 4.1%.

Neighboring Arizona had a 3.8% unemployment rate in December.

How many jobs did California add in 2024?

California added 15,000 new jobs in the final month of the year, according to a report by the California Employment Development Department released Friday.

Since April 2020, California has added more than 3.1 million jobs, with an average of roughly 57,000 jobs created each month.

According to the report, December marked 56 months of growth in California’s job market.

“We keep plugging a lot here with job gains,” Levy said. “They may not be massive or very robust, but they’re pretty consistent.”

In the course of 2024, California added 180,500 new non-farming jobs, a 1% increase from December 2023.

The state had more than 18.1 million non-farm jobs in total by the end of the year, according to the Employment Development Department.

The state had the second-highest number of new non-farming jobs in 2024 in the nation, behind only Texas, the Bureau of Labor Statistics report said.

Most of the state’s key industries experienced job growth throughout the year.

Levy said leisure and hospitality jobs saw positive growth in 2024 after the industry “took the heaviest hit” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The manufacturing industry decreased by 45,700 jobs between December 2023 and December 2024.

The agriculture industry also shrank, losing nearly 26,000 jobs in 2024.

These are the changes in number of jobs per industry through 2024, according to the Employment Development Department:

• Private education and health services: Up 129,400 jobs
• Government: Up 56,700
• Trade, transportation and utilities: Up 23,900
• Leisure and hospitality: Up 17,100
• Professional and business services: Up 17,100
• Other services: Up 3,200
• Financial activities: Up 2,300
• Mining and logging: Down 100 jobs
• Information: Down 11,000
• Construction: Down 12,400
• Agriculture: Down 25,900
• Manufacturing: Down 45,700

Which states had highest unemployment rates in December?

Twenty states and the District of Columbia had unemployment rates at or above the national average of 4.1% in December.

Here are the states with the 10 highest unemployment rates in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

1. Nevada, 5.7% unemployment rate

2. California, 5.5%

3. District of Columbia, 5.5%
4. Illinois, 5.2%
5. Kentucky, 5.2%
6. Michigan, 5.0%

7. Alaska, 4.7%

8. South Carolina, 4.7%
9. New Jersey, 4.6%
10. Rhode Island, 4.6%

Which states had the lowest unemployment rates?

The states with the 10 lowest unemployment rates were:

1. South Dakota, 1.9% unemployment rate
2. Vermont, 2.4%
3. North Dakota, 2.5%
4. New Hampshire, 2.6%
5. Nebraska, 2.8%
6. Connecticut, 3.0%
7. Hawaii, 3.0%
8. Virginia, 3.0%
9. Wisconsin, 3.0%
10. Maryland, 3.1%
    
    
11. Montana, 3.1%

Which states had the largest change in unemployment rate from December 2023?

The national unemployment rate rose by 0.3% from December 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics report said.

Twelve states had decreases in unemployment rates over the 12-month period, while 35 states and the District of Columbia had increases in their unemployment rates.

Georgia, New Hampshire and Virginia’s unemployment rates were relatively unchanged between December 2023 and 2024.

These were the 12 states that had decreases in unemployment rates, and how much unemployment dropped:

1. Connecticut, 1.2% decrease in unemployment
2. Arizona, 0.4%
3. Delaware, 0.4%
4. Wisconsin, 0.4%
5. Arkansas, 0.3%
6. Maine, 0.2%
7. Montana, 0.2%
8. New Jersey, 0.2%
9. New York, 0.2%
10. Oklahoma, 0.2%
11. South Dakota, 0.2%
12. West Virginia, 0.1%

These 10 states had these largest increases in unemployment rates between 2023 and 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

1. South Carolina, 1.7% increase in unemployment
2. Rhode Island, 1.2%
3. Colorado, 1.1%
4. Indiana, 1.0%
5. Kansas, 1.0%
6. Kentucky, 0.9%
7. Maryland, 0.9%
8. Massachusetts, 0.9%
9. Michigan, 0.9%
10. Ohio, 0.8%

Camila Pedrosa

The Sacramento Bee

Camila Pedrosa is a service journalism reporter at The Sacramento Bee. She previously worked as a summer reporting intern for The Bee and reported in Phoenix and Washington, D.C. She graduated from Arizona State University with a master’s degree in mass communication.