Jobless rates increase in 28 states

The labor market continues to churn out modest improvements each month but still not at a pace fast enough to significantly lower the unemployment rate. 

In July, employers added 162,000 jobs while the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent, a more than 4-year low. 

Still, in the past year, hiring increased in 49 states and the District of Columbia and only decreased in Alaska. 

Last month, Nevada had the highest unemployment rate at 9.5 percent while Illinois came in at 9.2 with Rhode Island and North Carolina at 8.9. 

North Dakota continued to have the lowest jobless rate at 3 percent with South Dakota posting a 3.9. 

In total, 31 states had jobless rates at or below the 7.4 percent posted last month. 

The bulk of the improvement has been in the West and South, areas that took heavy job losses during the economic downturn and have battled to get out of double-digit joblessness. 

In the West, the jobless rate fell to 7.9 percent in July, down from 9.3 percent a year earlier and the biggest decline of the four regions. 

The South saw unemployment fall to 7.3 percent, from 7.8 percent a year ago.

The largest monthly increases in hiring were in California (+38,100), Georgia (+30,900) and Florida (+27,600) while New Jersey (-11,800), Nevada (-10,200) and Maryland (-9,200) lost the most positions.

Unemployment in California dropped to 8.7 percent in July from 10.6 percent a year ago, the best yearly improvement of any state.