Jobless Rate Rose in All 50 States in April, Labor Department Says -- Update

By Eric Morath and Kim Mackrael

Nevada registered the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. last month at 28.2%, the Labor Department said Friday in a report detailing the impact of the new coronavirus and related lockdowns on the job market in all 50 states.

The jobless rate rose in all 50 states and the District of Columbia last month, and 43 states recorded the highest level on record since 1976. The rate in three states exceeded 20% in April, well above the national rate of 14.7%, which was the highest on record since 1948.

Friday's report offers the first state-by-state look at how the coronavirus pandemic had a differing, but widely devastating impact, across the country last month. In total, U.S. employers cut more than 20 million jobs in April, but the employment loss wasn't evenly distributed.

After Nevada, the two states with the highest rates of joblessness were Michigan, at 22.7% and Hawaii, at 22.3%. Rates rose by at least 10 percentage points in 20 states.

Nevada's heavy dependence on hospitality and tourism is the main reason for the state's high unemployment rate, said Jeremy Aguero, a principal analyst with Las Vegas-based economic research firm Applied Analysis.

Nearly a quarter of the state's labor force was employed in the hospitality and leisure industry before the pandemic began, according to the Labor Department. That industry, which normally employs about 350,000 in the state, lost roughly 40% of its workforce in March and April.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered casinos to close March 17, effectively shutting down the tourism industry.

"Nevada remains among the least diversified economies of its size in the country," Mr. Aguero said. He said the downturn in tourism has also rippled out to affect hotel and restaurant suppliers and other businesses that depend on hospitality workers spending their earnings locally.

Hawaii faced similar challenges. Employment in leisure and hospitality, which accounted for about one in five Hawaiian jobs last year, declined by 56% in April, according to the Labor Department.

States that are heavily dependent on manufacturing also saw big job losses. General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV all closed plants in Michigan mid-March, causing a ripple effect of layoffs at suppliers in the state and elsewhere. Michigan's employment in manufacturing industries fell 28% in April, according to Labor Department data.

Auto makers on Monday began restarting their U.S. factories, though two later were halted, one as a result of a worker's illness and the other as a result of a parts shortage.

In Washington state, the unemployment rate rose to 15.4% in April from 5.1% in March. Boeing Co. closed its largest Seattle-area factory temporarily in late March after about two dozen workers in the region tested positive for the new coronavirus and one person died. The plant reopened last month with additional safety precautions, but the company warned of future layoffs because declining air travel has lowered demand for jetliners.

Connecticut had the lowest unemployment rate last month at 7.9%. The next lowest rates were in Minnesota, 8.1%, and Nebraska, 8.3%.

The unemployment rate represents the people without jobs but actively seeking employment as a share of a state's overall labor force. Separate Labor Department data show that many people who recently lost jobs dropped out of the labor force because they were either not seeking work or were unable to report to a job in mid-April, the period the survey determining the jobless rate asked about.

Nonfarm payrolls fell in every state in April, according to the Labor Department.

The largest declines occurred in populous states: California lost 2.3 million jobs, New York 1.8 million, and Texas 1.3 million. The states with the largest percentage declines were Michigan at 22.8%, Vermont at 19.6% and New York at 18.8%.

New York has the highest number of Covid-19 cases and related deaths among U.S. states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Covid-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.

Write to Eric Morath at [e-mail] and Kim Mackrael at [e-mail]

Corrections & Amplifications

This article was corrected at 4;24: p.m. ET to reflect that Michigan's employment in manufacturing industries fell 28% in April, not 57%.