For all the talk of a slowdown in the US economy, more than a dozen U.S. states have the best job markets in their history.
Unemployment rates were lower last month than a year earlier in 23 states, and stable in another seven, according to data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 15 states, unemployment was at the lowest level since the data series began in January 1976, and in 40 of them there was a statistically significant increase in the number of people working over the 12 months through April.
The strength of labor markets across various U.S. regions isn’t easy to square with an economy on the verge of an imminent downturn — and may bolster the a chorus of analysts who think that the U.S. can avoid a recession, even after the most aggressive Federal Reserve tightening in decades.
