State unemployment rates stable

For his part, the president himself went to North Carolina and Virginia this week to sell his plan.

{mosads}According to the Labor Department numbers, state-by-state unemployment rates stayed fairly stable. For instance, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania saw their rates either stay the same or inch up 0.1 percentage points.

But there have been some fairly significant changes over the last year, such as the rate drop experienced by New Mexico, another swing state – from 8.6 percent to 6.6 percent. Florida, Oregon and Massachusetts also saw their rates drop by at least 1 percentage point from September 2010 to last month.

On the flip side, Alabama saw the largest rate increase among states over that year, from 9.1 percent to 9.8 percent. Washington D.C.’s rate has also risen, from 9.7 percent to 11.1 percent.

Nevada and California also continue to have the top two unemployment rates in the country, at 13.4 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively.