Unemployment rate rises in 44 states

By Bernie Becker - 08/17/12 12:59 PM ET

Close to 90 percent of states saw their unemployment rates rise in July, a potentially worrisome development for President Obama’s reelection campaign.

The Labor Department reported Friday that 44 states in all saw their jobless rate go up, with four states seeing no change at all. Only Idaho and Rhode Island — along with Washington, D.C. — saw their rates drop last month.

The economy added 163,000 jobs in July, the Labor Department said earlier this month, a figure that beat expectations and outpaced the sluggish job growth of the previous three months.

But Republicans also latched on to the fact that the national unemployment rate ticked back up, from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent.

The strength of the job market and the economy at large is still expected to play a key role in November’s match-up between Obama and the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.

At the same time, Romney’s recent choice of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the House GOP’s budget guru, as his running mate also appears to have brought issues like Medicare and budget deficits more to the forefront of the campaign.

Even though the unemployment rate remains north of 8 percent, some analysts expected Obama to get a boost because many of the swing states that both campaigns are targeting have jobless rates below the national average.

But among the dozen or so states that both parties are contesting, only Ohio — which saw its rate stay at 7.2 percent — did not see an increase in July.

Nevada, which continues to have the highest unemployment rate in the country, saw its rate jump back to 12 percent, up from June’s 11.6 percent. New Hampshire (now 5.4 percent), Pennsylvania (7.9 percent) and Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin (7.3 percent) each saw rises of 0.3 percentage points.

Still, even with last month’s increases, several swing states have seen substantial reductions in their unemployment rate over the last year. In all, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that 17 states and D.C. have seen substantial decreases since July 2011, with only New York having a statistically significant increase.

Florida (now 8.8 percent), Michigan (9 percent), Nevada, North Carolina (9.6 percent) and Ohio have all seen their rates drop at least a percentage point over the last year.

The Labor Department also said Friday that 31 states added net jobs last month, with Michigan and Virginia adding the second and third most, respectively.