California unemployment rate again the third-highest in nation

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At 12.4%, California again clocked the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday morning. The state trailed only Nevada (14.2%) and Michigan (12.8%).

The nation’s unemployment rate in October was 9.6%.

California also added the third most jobs in the nation, 38,900. Texas added 47,900 and New York gained 40,600. New Jersey, on the other hand, lost 37,100 jobs.

Midwestern states had the lowest joblessness in October, the BLS said. North Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, at 3.8%, followed by South Dakota (4.5%) and Nebraska (4.7%). They were three of the 27 states with jobless rates significantly lower than the U.S. average. California was one of five states with rates measurably higher than the U.S. rate.

Many states seem to be in better economic situations than they were a year ago. States such as Alabama, Michigan and Tennessee all saw their employment rates fall by more than a percentage point from a year ago, and other states, including Pennsylvania and Minnesota, have gained jobs compared with the year-ago period.

California’s unemployment rate is 0.2 percentage points higher than it was a year ago.

-- Alana Semuels