Highest labor force by state

How to read this ranking

District of Columbia has the highest published labor force in this comparison, at 71.6%. The next states shown are Utah (69.6%) and Colorado (68.6%).

The table orders 51 states by share of adults in the labor force. It describes one published measure, not an overall judgment about where to live.

Use the result as a starting point, then compare the underlying source, dates, and local county figures before making a decision. 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.