Jobless states: The top 10

Unemployment rose in 18 states in May, as well as nationally. Fewer jobs were created than in any other month of the past year. Here’s a look at the top 10 states with the highest unemployment rates.

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The national unemployment rate rose from 8.1 percent in April to 8.2 percent in May, as the jobless rate increased in 18 states, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employers added only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in the past 12 months. In this photo, activists protested against corporate greed near the Capitol in Washington in October 2011.

Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images

10. Missouri and Arkansas (tie)

General Motors employees work on a van assembly line at GM’s plant in Wentzville, Mo. GM announced plans in November to build its new midsize Colorado pickup truck at the plant and is adding 1,660 jobs in Wentzville. Manufacturing jobs are increasing in Missouri and Arkansas, where the jobless rate is 7.3 percent.

Jeff Roberson / AP

9. Ohio

Machinist Bob Watters works on a precision part cutter at Astro Manufacturing and Design in Eastlake, Ohio -- one of several manufacturing companies in the state that is currently hiring. Ohio's unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent in May, a significant change from the year before, when it was 8.8 percent.

Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post

7./8. Pennsylvania and Maine (tie)

Pennsylvania and Maine are tied for the seventh-highest unemployment rate in the country, at 7.4 percent. That rate carried over from April to May in Pennsylvania, where a decline in goods producer jobs was offset by a gain of 38,800 jobs in the logging and mining industries. But Maine’s jobless rate fell 0.2 percent, from 7.2 percent in April. A Pennsylvania steelworker is pictured here.

Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post

6. New Jersey

Dealer Elbert Taclan, right, prepares a card game at the opening of the $2.4 billion Revel casino resort in Atlantic City. New Jersey's unemployment rate is hovering at 9.2 percent -- the sixth-highest in the country -- despite adding 9,900 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector in May, partially because of the opening of Revel.

Wayne Parry / AP

5. Washington, D.C.

The District's jobless rate is 9.3 percent -- the fifth-highest in the country. Here, hundreds of people demonstrate in front of Wal-Mart federal government relations offices in the District, calling for the corporation to create more jobs.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

4. North Carolina

President Obama speaks about his proposed American Jobs Act during a visit to North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The state's unemployment rate is 9.4 percent -- the fourth-highest in the country.

Sara D. Davis / Getty Images

3. California

California ranks as the state with the third-highest unemployment rate, currently at 10.8 percent, in spite of job growth in the leisure and hospitality sectors in May. Here, tourists hold onto their hats as they walk on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

2. Rhode Island

A "For Sale" sign is seen outside the boarded-up entrance to the Central Falls Department of Parks and Recreation in Central Falls, R.I. Central Falls is one of a handful of U.S. cities and counties facing fiscal collapse in the wake of the economic recession. Rhode Island has the second-highest jobless rate in the country, after Nevada, at 11 percent.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

1. Nevada

An Elvis impersonator counts his tips on The Strip in Las Vegas, where performers have been hit hard by the economic downturn. In spite of an uptick in leisure and hospitality jobs in Nevada in May, the state's unemployment rate is the highest in the country, at 11.6 percent. That's actually the lowest it's been in Nevada in three years. Las Vegas has the highest jobless rate of the state's three major population centers.

Julie Jacobson / AP

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