The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each US state as of April 2021, the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Five states have an unemployment rate below three percent.
Findings
- The difference between the states with the lowest unemployment rate, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Utah, and the state with the highest, Hawaii, is 5.70 percentage points (down from 6.20 last month and down from 24.00 last year). Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont had the lowest rate last month while Wyoming had the lowest rate last year. Hawaii had the highest rate last month while Nevada had the highest rate last year.
- Hawaii has 3.04 times the unemployment rate that Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Utah do. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 3.14 last month and down from 5.36 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 5.00 (down from 5.10 last month and down from 13.20 last year) and the mean 5.36 (down from 5.46 the previous month and down from 13.71 last year).
- Of the 50 states, 15 saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 30 saw an improvement, and 5 saw the rate increase.
- Of the 50 states, 0 saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 50 saw an improvement over the prior year's rate, and 0 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year.
Caveats
- Data is from April 2021.
- Data may conflict with previous month's report as statistical agencies make updates to the rates over the course of the month.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
In absolute terms, Rhode Island had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.7 percentage points. Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Wyoming had the worst performance with an increase of 0.1 percentage points in the unemployment rate. Year over year, Nevada had the best performance with a 21.5 percentage point drop while Wyoming had the worst performance with a 0.1 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate.
In relative terms, Rhode Island had the best performance over the previous month with a 10.00% drop in the rate while Iowa had the worst performance with an 2.70% rise in the rate. Year over year, New Hampshire had the best performance with a 82.50% drop in the rate while Wyoming had the worst performance with a 1.82% drop in the rate.
Of the 50 states, 12 have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as 12 last month, up from 0 last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Of the 50, 33 have a rate between four and eight percent (up from 32 last month, up from 2 last year), and 5 have a rate above eight percent (down from 6 last month, down from 48 last year).
Rhode Island (from 40th lowest unemployment rate to 34th lowest) rose 6 spots between last month and this. On the other hand, Vermont (from 1st to 5th) fell 4 spots. Year-over-year, New Hampshire (from 36th to 1st) rose 35 spots. Conversely, Connecticut (from 3rd to 46th) fell 43 spots.
Data
| State | Last Year | Previous Rate | Latest Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 13.2 | 3.8 | 3.6 |
| Alaska | 11.8 | 6.7 | 6.7 |
| Arizona | 14.2 | 6.7 | 6.7 |
| Arkansas | 10 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| California | 16 | 8.3 | 8.3 |
| Colorado | 12.1 | 6.4 | 6.4 |
| Connecticut | 8.6 | 8.3 | 8.1 |
| Delaware | 13.4 | 6.5 | 6.4 |
| Florida | 14 | 4.7 | 4.8 |
| Georgia | 12.5 | 4.5 | 4.3 |
| Hawaii | 21.9 | 9.1 | 8.5 |
| Idaho | 11.6 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| Illinois | 16.5 | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Indiana | 16.9 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| Iowa | 11.1 | 3.7 | 3.8 |
| Kansas | 12.6 | 3.7 | 3.5 |
| Kentucky | 16.9 | 5 | 4.7 |
| Louisiana | 13.1 | 7.4 | 7.3 |
| Maine | 9.1 | 4.8 | 4.8 |
| Maryland | 9 | 6.2 | 6.2 |
| Massachusetts | 16.4 | 6.7 | 6.5 |
| Michigan | 23.6 | 5.1 | 4.9 |
| Minnesota | 9 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| Mississippi | 15.7 | 6.2 | 6.2 |
| Missouri | 12.5 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| Montana | 11.9 | 3.8 | 3.7 |
| Nebraska | 7.4 | 2.9 | 2.8 |
| Nevada | 29.5 | 8.1 | 8 |
| New Hampshire | 16 | 3 | 2.8 |
| New Jersey | 16.6 | 7.6 | 7.5 |
| New Mexico | 10 | 8.3 | 8.2 |
| New York | 16.2 | 8.4 | 8.2 |
| North Carolina | 13.5 | 5.2 | 5 |
| North Dakota | 8.7 | 4.4 | 4.2 |
| Ohio | 16.4 | 4.7 | 4.7 |
| Oklahoma | 13 | 4.3 | 4.3 |
| Oregon | 13.2 | 6 | 6 |
| Pennsylvania | 16.2 | 7.3 | 7.4 |
| Rhode Island | 17.4 | 7 | 6.3 |
| South Carolina | 11.5 | 5.1 | 5 |
| South Dakota | 9.2 | 2.9 | 2.8 |
| Tennessee | 15.8 | 5.1 | 5 |
| Texas | 12.9 | 6.9 | 6.7 |
| Utah | 10.1 | 2.9 | 2.8 |
| Vermont | 14.8 | 2.9 | 2.9 |
| Virginia | 11.3 | 5.1 | 4.7 |
| Washington | 16.3 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| West Virginia | 15.6 | 5.9 | 5.8 |
| Wisconsin | 14.8 | 3.8 | 3.9 |
| Wyoming | 5.5 | 5.3 | 5.4 |
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed June 17, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.