Mary-Louise Hoffman
A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report says that the July national unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.3 percent and about 0.9 percentage points lower than the jobless rate recorded during the same month last year.
Nonfarm payrolls were up in 34 U.S. states and down in 16 states plus the District of Columbia for the month of July, BLS said Friday.
BLS said Virginia’s employment figure remained level month-over-month and increased by 40,700 from July 2014 figures.
Maryland added 9,200 jobs in July 2015 from June and showed employment growth of 53,700 from July 2014 figures, the bureau said.
California showed the largest month-over-month employment gain among all states with 80,700 new jobs added last month, followed by Texas at 31,400 and Florida at 30,500.
New Jersey, Louisiana and Kansas saw the largest month-over-month employment decreases.
The lowest regional jobless rate, 4.8 percent, last month occurred in the Midwest while the highest unemployment rate, 5.7 percent, occurred in the West region.
