"it's possible that some states will weather the labor storm better than they did in the 1980s."

Rebecca Wilder on News N Economics with a good analysis of the data:

"State unemployment rates: growing but not jointly surging

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its November regional and state employment report. Not surprisingly, the news was generally poor: the unemployment rate is rising across the 50 states (including D.C.). The national labor cycle will likely rival the carnage that occurred in the 1980’s, but a different pattern is emerging at the state level: it's possible that some states will weather the labor storm better than they did in the 1980s.

Here are some of Friday’s headlines following the BLS report:
California posts 8.4% jobless rate, third highest in U.S.
State's unemployment rate hits 25-year high (South Carolina)
Tiny State, Huge Pain R.I. Has Lost Jobs 11 Months in a Row
State's unemployment rate took hit in November (Indiana)
State Unemployment Figures Remain Steady (Ohio)
And for a static view of state-level unemployment rates, click here?: Unemployment state by state

In November, Michigan had the highest unemployment rate, 9.6%, while Wyoming had the lowest unemployment rate, 3.2%. But this is just November's data; a more thorough data set would include statistics across states AND time. However, a pretty 51-column table including each state’s unemployment rate since 1976 (the beginning of the series) is hard to come by. It is a cumbersome process to sift through the massive state-level data; but don't worry, I did this (partially) for you all."

Read the rest on her site.