North Dakota’s unemployment rate slowly declining

New unemployment numbers released this Friday show the state's unemployment rate is now at 8.6% for the month of May.

The rate is 0.6% lower than the month of April, which saw the state's highest unemployment rate in recent history due to the pandemic.

However, this month’s number is also 6.5% higher than it was a year ago today, when North Dakota had a 2% unemployment rate.

North Dakota also recorded a total of 12,942 initial jobless claims in May, down by nearly one-third from April.

Nationwide, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is at 13.3% in May, which is down from last month's rate of 14.7%.