Employment by state, seasonally adjusted, rose in all but four states from July 2003 to July 2004, and 49 states lowered their unemployment rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported (www.bls.gov/sae). From June to July, “Unemployment rates were generally little changed” and employment increases and decreases were nearly balanced. But in the view of the Economic Policy Institute (www.jobwatch.org), “Most states still have very weak job markets, with fewer jobs in 32 states and higher unemployment in 45 states than when the recession began.”
Construction employment by state continued to show widespread year-over-year gains but had less momentum from June to July. Compared to June 2004, seasonally adjusted construction employment rose in 24 states, fell in 15 plus DC, and was unchanged in 10 states. But compared to July 2003, construction employment rose in 44 states plus DC, fell in just three, and was within 100 of prior-year totals in two. The largest year-over-year percentage gains were in Nevada (+11%), Idaho (+10%), Arizona (+9%), and Kentucky (+7%). Construction employment dipped year-over-year only in Colorado (-3%), Louisiana (-1%), and California (-0.1%). (BLS does not report monthly construction employment for Hawaii and combines construction with the small mining sector in Delaware, DC, and Maryland.)