Rankings · Jobs

Highest labor force by state

Share of adults in the labor force.

The share of people 16 and over who are working or looking for work. Low figures mean a place is retired rather than unemployed — the two look identical in a jobless rate, which only counts people actively looking. Read alongside median age: a retirement county and a county where people have stopped looking both sit low here, and they are very different places.

  1. 1District of Columbia71.6%
  2. 2Utah69.6%
  3. 3Colorado68.6%
  4. 4North Dakota68.6%
  5. 5Nebraska68.6%
  6. 6Minnesota68.1%
  7. 7South Dakota67.2%
  8. 8Maryland67.1%
  9. 9Massachusetts67.0%
  10. 10Iowa66.4%
  11. 11New Jersey66.4%
  12. 12Alaska66.3%
  13. 13New Hampshire66.3%
  14. 14Kansas66.1%
  15. 15Connecticut65.9%
  16. 16Virginia65.4%
  17. 17Texas65.3%
  18. 18Wisconsin65.3%
  19. 19Wyoming65.1%
  20. 20Illinois65.0%
  21. 21Rhode Island65.0%
  22. 22Vermont64.6%
  23. 23Washington64.5%
  24. 24California63.8%
  25. 25Georgia63.8%
  26. 26Indiana63.8%
  27. 27Hawaii63.7%
  28. 28Nevada63.2%
  29. 29Missouri63.1%
  30. 30Ohio63.1%
  31. 31Idaho63.0%
  32. 32Montana62.9%
  33. 33North Carolina62.8%
  34. 34New York62.7%
  35. 35Pennsylvania62.7%
  36. 36Tennessee62.4%
  37. 37Oregon62.3%
  38. 38Delaware62.1%
  39. 39Maine61.7%
  40. 40Michigan61.3%
  41. 41Oklahoma61.2%
  42. 42Arizona60.6%
  43. 43South Carolina60.5%
  44. 44Florida59.8%
  45. 45Kentucky59.7%
  46. 46Louisiana59.3%
  47. 47Arkansas58.4%
  48. 48Alabama58.3%
  49. 49New Mexico57.8%
  50. 50Mississippi57.4%
  51. 51West Virginia53.8%
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Source: U.S. Census Bureau. · How this is built