Connecticut and Rhode Island paced New England with the largest one-year increase in average unemployment rates in 2010, federal data shows.
Each posted 0.8 percentage-point gains in their jobless rates for the 12-month period ended Dec. 31, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Tuesday.
Still, New England’s overall average 2010 jobless rate of 8.5 percent was only slightly higher than the 8.2 percent average for 2009, the agency’s Boston regional office reports.
The region’s unemployment also performed better than the 2010 national average of 9.6 percent for the third consecutive year, the BLS said.
New Hampshire (6.1 percent), Vermont (6.2 percent), Maine (7.9 percent) and Massachusetts (8.5 percent) and Connecticut (9.1 percent) had average unemployment rates better than the national average in 2010.
Rhode Island (11.6 percent) was the only New England state to exceed the national jobless rate average.
