Times are tougher in Washington and Oregon than in any other state, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
Washington’s unemployment rate in October was the highest in the nation, 6.6 percent.
The West had the highest unemployment rate, 5.6 percent, in October.
States in the Great Plains had three of the four lowest unemployment rates. North Dakota was tied with Delaware for the lowest, 2 percent. Nebraska’s and South Dakota’s rates were 3.1 percent.
The agency said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks played a role in the unemployment picture, but the effects were not possible to quantify.
Shortly after the attacks, Boeing said it planned to lay off 30,000 people in its commercial airplanes group. The cuts were planned to be completed by the end of 2002, but Boeing has accelerated them, with a target of mid-year.