The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of April 2021 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont are the only states with a 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, Greece, is 13.80 percentage points (up from 13.60 last month and down from 27.30 last year). Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont had the lowest rate last month and Czechia had the lowest rate last year. Greece had the highest rate last month and Nevada had the highest rate last year.
- Greece has 5.93 times the unemployment rate that Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Utah do. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 5.69 last month and down from 13.41 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.20 (up from 6.15 the previous month and up from 5.60 last year) and the mean 6.84 (up from 6.80 the previous month and up from 6.35 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).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 5.55 (same as 5.55 last month and down from 11.40 last year) and the mean 5.89 (down from 5.94 the previous month and down from 11.07 last year).
- Of the 78 states, 22 (15 US, 7 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 41 saw an improvement (30 US, 11 EU), and 15 saw the rate increase (5 US, 10 EU).
- Of the 78 states, 3 (0 US, 3 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 57 saw an improvement (50 US, 7 EU), and 18 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year (0 US, 18 EU).
Caveats
- Data is from April 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from March 2021, and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from February 2021 (previous month and year rates also reflect the respective one, two, and three month delay).
- 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. Cyprus had the worst performance rising 1.4 percentage points. Year over year, Nevada had the best performance with a 21.5 percentage point drop while Italy had the worst performance with a 3.3 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Rhode Island had the best performance over the previous month with a 10.00% drop in the rate while Cyprus had the worst performance with a 17.50% rise in the rate. Year over year, New Hampshire had the best performance with a 82.50% drop in the rate while Czechia had the worst performance with a 54.55% rise in the rate.
Of the 78 states, 16 states (12 US, 4 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as 16 - 12 US, 4 EU - last month, up from 5 - 0 US, 5 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages, 52 (33 US, 19 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (same as 52 - 32 US, 20 EU - last month, up from 22 - 2 US, 20 EU - last year), and 10 (5 US, 5 EU) have a rate above eight percent (same as 10 - 6 US, 4 EU - last month, down from 51 - 48 US, 3 EU - last year).
Rhode Island (from 58th lowest unemployment rate to 48th lowest out of 78) rose 10 spots between last month and this month. On the other hand, Lithuania (from 49th to 58th) fell 9 spots. Year-over-year, New Hampshire (from 64th to 1st) rose 63 spots. Conversely, Italy (from 20th to 76th) fell 56 spots.
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.
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed June 18, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-1E469E03_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;S_ADJ,L,Z,0;AGE,L,Z,1;UNIT,L,Z,2;SEX,L,Z,3;INDICATORS,C,Z,4;&zSelection=DS-055624AGE,TOTAL;DS-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624SEX,T;DS-055624INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;&rankName1=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName2=AGE_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName4=SEX_1_2_-1_2&rankName5=S-ADJ_1_2_-1_2&rankName6=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName7=GEO_1_2_0_1&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.
Hellenic Statistical Authority. 2021. "Statistics - ELSTAT." Accessed June 18, 2021. https://www.statistics.gr/en/statistics/-/publication/SJO02/-.
Office for National Statistics. 2021. "X01: Labour Force Survey Single-Month Estimates." Accessed June 18, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.