US Counties With the Lowest Labour Force
3,219 US counties ranked by labour force, from lowest to highest. First are Chattahoochee County, GA (133.86), East Carroll Parish, LA (173.45) and McDowell County, WV (196.22). The middle one of the 3,219 has 467.01.
What this measures
Everyone who is working or actively looking for work. People who have stopped looking are not included. So a falling unemployment rate can mean either more jobs or fewer people looking. Source: BLS LAUS.
This is a count, so it is ranked per 1,000 residents. Ranked by the raw total, it would just list the biggest counties.
For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.
The 100 lowest counties
Every state, lowest first
Each state’s own published figure, not an average of its counties.
| Rank | State | Per 1,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Puerto Rico | 369.17 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 423.83 |
| 3 | West Virginia | 442.04 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 450.25 |
| 5 | Kentucky | 456.09 |
| 6 | New Mexico | 457.03 |
| 7 | Arkansas | 457.09 |
| 8 | Alabama | 458.03 |
| 9 | Hawaii | 470.71 |
| 10 | South Carolina | 478.67 |
| 11 | Alaska | 487.34 |
| 12 | Tennessee | 487.41 |
| 13 | Oklahoma | 492.21 |
| 14 | New York | 495.66 |
| 15 | Ohio | 495.81 |
| 16 | Georgia | 496.43 |
| 17 | California | 497.29 |
| 18 | Michigan | 497.82 |
| 19 | North Carolina | 498.13 |
| 20 | Florida | 502.62 |
| 21 | Indiana | 502.70 |
| 22 | Missouri | 503.65 |
| 23 | Maine | 504.10 |
| 24 | Pennsylvania | 505.06 |
| 25 | Wyoming | 506.36 |
| 26 | Arizona | 506.58 |
| 27 | Delaware | 506.82 |
| 28 | Oregon | 511.90 |
| 29 | Nevada | 512.07 |
| 30 | Idaho | 513.82 |
| 31 | Illinois | 514.13 |
| 32 | Texas | 514.43 |
| 33 | Montana | 517.85 |
| 34 | Maryland | 518.24 |
| 35 | Kansas | 519.85 |
| 36 | Washington | 520.26 |
| 37 | Virginia | 524.98 |
| 38 | New Jersey | 526.52 |
| 39 | Wisconsin | 530.43 |
| 40 | Connecticut | 530.58 |
| 41 | Rhode Island | 530.83 |
| 42 | South Dakota | 533.48 |
| 43 | Iowa | 534.46 |
| 44 | North Dakota | 536.62 |
| 45 | Utah | 539.66 |
| 46 | Vermont | 541.62 |
| 47 | Nebraska | 541.83 |
| 48 | Minnesota | 543.87 |
| 49 | Massachusetts | 546.89 |
| 50 | New Hampshire | 549.19 |
| 51 | Colorado | 555.88 |
| 52 | District of Columbia | 602.83 |
More on labour force
- US Counties With the Highest Labour Force
- Labour force by US county: map by year and what it goes with
A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.