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A young businessman surrounded by moving boxes celebrating while using a laptop

10 worst states for job seekers

A tight job market alongside some of the country’s worst economic outlooks 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 recently 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 environmental (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.
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40. Pennsylvania

Total score: 47.78
Job market rank: 26
Economic environment: 47
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The Wyoming State Capitol is the state capitol and seat of government of the U.S. state of Wyoming

41. Wyoming

Total Score: 47.34
Job market rank: 49
Economic environment: 2
North Carolina legislature's building

42. North Carolina

Total score: 46.15
Job market rank: 36
Economic environment: 46
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43. New Mexico

Total score: 45.89
Job market rank: 45
Economic environment: 17
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A summer day looking across the bay from Point Woronzof

44. Alaska

Total score: 45.36
Job market rank: 48
Economic environment: 11
Budget gaps are shrinking at the Oklahoma state Capitol.

45. Oklahoma

Total score: 43.72
Job market rank: 46
Economic environment: 26
Mississippi State Capitol

46. Mississippi

Total score: 42.71
Job market rank: 43
Economic environment: 40
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47. Alabama

Total score: 41.52
Job market rank: 44
Economic environment: 41
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Downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

48. Kentucky

Total score: 40.12
Job market rank: 40
Economic environment: 50
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49. Louisiana

Total score: 37.04
Job market rank: 50
Economic environment: 28
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50. West Virginia

Total score: 35.23
Job market rank: 47
Economic environment: 48
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10 best states for job seekers

To see the list of states with the best job prospects, click here.
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