10 worst states for job seekers

Job hunting is never easy, and a tight job market has created some less-than-stellar opportunities for job seekers in some states, putting the onus on benefits managers to create the right benefits plans to keep the best talent within an organization.

Personal-finance website WalletHub released a ranking of states with the worst job opportunities. To determine its list, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 24 key indicators of job-market strength, opportunity and economic vitality.

Those sections were filtered into two major categories: job market (which includes metrics such as job opportunities, employment growth and job satisfaction) and economic environment (which includes metrics such as median annual income, average number of hours in a work week and earned income-tax credit). WalletHub used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor and Gallup-Healthways, among others.

10. Montana

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Total score: 48.93 (out of 100)
Job market rank: 38 (out of 50)
Economic environment rank: 33 (out of 50)

9. North Carolina

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Total score: 48.85
Job market rank: 34
Economic environment rank: 42

8. Pennsylvania

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Total score: 46.56
Job market rank: 26
Economic environment rank: 49

7. Arkansas

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Total score: 45.30
Job market rank: 42
Economic environment rank: 44

6. Alabama

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Total score: 44.36
Job market rank: 44
Economic environment rank: 45

5. Alaska

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Total score: 44.19
Job market rank: 50
Economic environment rank: 6

4. Louisiana

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Total score: 43.91
Job market rank: 47
Economic environment rank: 32

3. Kentucky

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Total score: 37.90
Job market rank: 43
Economic environment rank: 50

2. Mississippi

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Total score: 37.15
Job market rank: 48
Economic environment rank: 46

1. West Virginia

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Total score: 34.83
Job market rank: 49
Economic environment rank: 48
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