Four states saw record low unemployment in February, including California, the biggest state in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
California’s jobless rate fell to 4.3 percent in the month, the fourth straight month it set a new record low. The agency has kept the statistics since 1976.
Maine (2.9 percent), Mississippi (4.5 percent), and Wisconsin (2.9 percent) also set record low unemployment rates in February.
A number of states around the country have probed historically low unemployment in recent months as the nation’s overall jobless rate has dropped to 4.1 percent, the lowest since the turn of the century.
It’s not just small states. Texas is near record-low unemployment. Florida unemployment, at 3.9 percent, is near as low as it’s ever been outside the years of the housing bubble. Florida is the third largest state.
In other parts of the country, though, labor markets are not yet hot. New Mexico, West Virginia, and particularly Alaska are still suffering unemployment above 5 percent.
