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New Jobs Report Shows Higher Unemployment In June-July

Lilian Min |
August 18, 2012 | 2:53 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

The new Labor Department report shows unemployment increases in several battleground states. (via Wikimedia)
The new Labor Department report shows unemployment increases in several battleground states. (via Wikimedia)
The new jobs report released by the Labor Department on Friday for the months of June and July show that unemployment rose in 44 states, with only Idaho, Rhode Island, and D.C. reporting lower unemployment and four other states reporting unchanged unemployment.

According to Reuters, unemployment was the highest in Nevada again at 12%. The national rate of unemployment is currently 8.3%.

One of President Obama's touted successes is the decreasing of unemployment in states like Michigan, which had the highest rate of unemployment in the country at the time of Obama's election in 2008.

Michigan's unemployment rate rose to 9% in July, up from 8.6% in June. However, the state has experienced the greatest drop in unemployment in the past year, with a net loss of 1.6%. In the latest polls, Michigan is the only battleground state leaning toward Obama.

While the overall unemployment rate rises in most of the 44 states were smaller increases, the most dramatic increases came from key election battleground states such as Michigan, Florida, and Virginia.

According to the Washington Post, Virginia's unemployment rate rose from 5.7% to 5.9%, which is still below the national average, but is the second straight month in which the state's unemployment rate has risen. However, the state also added hundreds of thousands of jobs.

This is the first time so many states have reported unemployment increases, with recent past reports only showing 27 or less states reporting unemployment rises each month, according to CNN.

Whatever the impact this new jobs report will have on the upcoming election should also be balanced with the knowledge that now, only three states have unemployment rates of 10% or higher, compared to a year ago, when 10 states and D.C. reported such high rates. Overall, 44 states and D.C. have reported lower unemployment rates than compared to a year ago.

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