Notice2025-19136
Labor Surplus Area Classification
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
October 1, 2025
Effective
October 1, 2025
Issuing agencies
Labor DepartmentEmployment and Training Administration
Abstract
The purpose of this notice is to announce the annual Labor Surplus Area (LSA) list for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 188 (Wednesday, October 1, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 188 (Wednesday, October 1, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47340-47341]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-19136]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Employment and Training Administration
Labor Surplus Area Classification
AGENCY: Employment and Training Administration, Labor.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is to announce the annual Labor
Surplus Area (LSA) list for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026.
DATES: The annual LSA list is effective October 1, 2025, for all
States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kyle DeMaria, Office of Policy
Development and Research, or Donald Haughton, Office of Workforce
Investment. Employment and Training Administration, 200 Constitution
Avenue NW, Room N-5641, Washington, DC 20210. Email: Kyle DeMaria,
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#fa9e9f979b88939bd49183969fd498ba9e9596d49d958c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="5531303834273c347b3e2c39307b3715313a397b323a23">[email protected]</span></a>, or Donald Haughton, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#88e0e9fdefe0fce7e6a6ece7e6e9e4eca6ffc8ece7e4a6efe7fe"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="167e7763717e62797838727978777a7238615672797a38717960">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Labor (DOL)'s regulations
implementing Executive Orders 12073 and 10582 are set forth at 20 CFR
part 654, subpart A. These regulations require the DOL's Employment and
Training Administration (ETA) to classify jurisdictions as LSAs
pursuant to the criteria specified in the regulations, and to publish
annually a list of LSAs. Pursuant to those regulations, ETA is hereby
publishing the annual LSA list.
In addition, the regulations provide exceptional circumstance
criteria for classifying LSAs when catastrophic events, such as natural
disasters, plant closings, and contract cancellations are expected to
have a long-term impact on
[[Page 47341]]
labor market area conditions, discounting temporary or seasonal
factors.
Eligible Labor Surplus Areas
A LSA is a civil jurisdiction that has a civilian average annual
unemployment rate during the previous two calendar years of 20 percent
or more above the average annual civilian unemployment rate for all
states during the same 24-month reference period. ETA uses only
official unemployment estimates provided by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics in making these classifications. The average unemployment
rate for all states includes data for the District of Columbia, and the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The LSA classification criteria stipulate
a civil jurisdiction must have a ``floor unemployment rate'' of 6
percent or higher to be classified an LSA. Any civil jurisdiction that
has a ``ceiling unemployment rate'' of 10 percent or higher is
classified an LSA.
Civil jurisdictions are defined as follows:
1. A city of at least 25,000 population on the basis of the most
recently available estimates from the Bureau of the Census; or
2. A town or township in the States of Michigan, New Jersey, New
York, or Pennsylvania of 25,000 or more population and which possess
powers and functions similar to those of cities; or
3. All counties, except for those counties which contain any type
of civil jurisdictions defined in ``1'' or ``2'' above; or
4. A ``balance of county'' consisting of a county less any
component cities and townships identified in ``1'' or ``2'' above; or
5. A county equivalent which is a town in the States of
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
or a municipio in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Procedures for Classifying Labor Surplus Areas
DOL issues the LSA list on a fiscal year basis. The list becomes
effective each October 1 and remains in effect through the following
September 30. The reference period used in preparing the current list
was January 2023 through December 2024. The national average
unemployment rate (including Puerto Rico) during this period is rounded
to 3.84 percent. Twenty percent higher than the national unemployment
rate during this period is rounded to 4.61 percent. Since this percent
is below the floor rate, the qualifying rate is 6 percent.
To ensure that all areas classified as labor surplus meet the
requirements, when a city is part of a county and meets the
unemployment qualifier as a LSA, that city is identified in the LSA
list. The balance of county, not the entire county, will be identified
as a LSA if the balance of county also meets the LSA unemployment
criteria. The data on the current and previous years' LSAs are
available at <a href="http://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/lsa">www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/lsa</a>.
Petition for Exceptional Circumstance Consideration
The classification procedures also provide criteria for the
designation of LSAs under exceptional circumstances criteria. These
procedures permit the regular classification criteria to be waived when
an area experiences a significant increase in unemployment which is not
temporary or seasonal and which was not reflected in the data for the
2-year reference period. Under the program's exceptional circumstance
procedures, LSA classifications can be made for civil jurisdictions,
Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or Combined Statistical Areas, as
defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB). In order for
an area to be classified as a LSA under the exceptional circumstance
criteria, the State Workforce Agency must submit a petition requesting
such classification to the ETA. The current criteria for an exceptional
circumstance classification are:
1. An area's unemployment rate is at least 6 percent for each of
the three most recent months; and
2. A projected unemployment rate of at least 6 percent for each of
the next 12 months because of an event.
When submitting such a petition, the State Workforce Agency must
provide documentation that the exceptional circumstance event has
occurred. The State Workforce Agency may file petitions on behalf of
civil jurisdictions, Metropolitan Statistical Areas, or Micropolitan
Statistical Areas.
State Workforce Agencies may submit petitions in electronic format
to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#c0a4a5ada1b2a9a1eeabb9aca5eea280a4afaceea7afb6"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="89edece4e8fbe0e8a7e2f0e5eca7ebc9ede6e5a7eee6ff">[email protected]</span></a>, <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#afc7cedac8c7dbc0c181cbc0c1cec3cb81d8efcbc0c381c8c0d9"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="305851455758445f5e1e545f5e515c541e4770545f5c1e575f46">[email protected]</span></a>, or in hard copy
to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training
Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, 200
Constitution Avenue NW, Room N-5641, Washington, DC 20210. Data
collection for the petition is approved under OMB 1205-0207, expiration
date May 31, 2026.
Susan Frazier,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Labor.
[FR Doc. 2025-19136 Filed 9-30-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-FN-P
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