The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of May 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 state with the lowest unemployment rate, New Hampshire, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 13.90 percentage points (same as 13.90 last month and down from 22.00 last year). Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Utah 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 6.56 times the unemployment rate that New Hampshire does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 5.96 last month and down from 9.80 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.70 (down from 6.90 the previous month and up from 5.95 last year) and the mean 7.02 (down from 7.08 the previous month and up from 6.76 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 5.00 (same as 5.00 last month and down from 11.35 last year) and the mean 5.20 (down from 5.33 the previous month and down from 11.72 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 5.55 (down from 5.75 last month and down from 9.05 last year) and the mean 5.85 (down from 5.96 the previous month and down from 9.94 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 May 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from April 2021, and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from March 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, Delaware and Rhode Island had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.5 percentage points. Cyprus had the worst performance rising 0.7 percentage points. Year over year, Nevada had the best performance with a 16.7 percentage point drop while Ireland had the worst performance with a 2.7 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, New Hampshire had the best performance over the previous month with a 10.71% drop in the rate while Hungary had the worst performance with a 15.38% rise in the rate. Year over year, New Hampshire had the best performance with a 81.34% drop in the rate while Ireland had the worst performance with a 52.34% rise in the rate.
Of the 78 states, 16 states (11 US, 5 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (down from 18 - 12 US, 6 EU - last month, up from 5 - 0 US, 5 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages, 56 (38 US, 18 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (up from 51 - 34 US, 17 EU - last month, up from 19 - 4 US, 15 EU - last year), and 6 (1 US, 5 EU) have a rate above eight percent (down from 9 - 4 US, 5 EU - last month, down from 54 - 46 US, 8 EU - last year).
New York (from 72nd lowest unemployment rate to 65th lowest out of 78) rose 7 spots between last month and this month. On the other hand, Hungary (from 15th to 24th) fell 9 spots. Year-over-year, New Hampshire (from 64th to 1st) rose 63 spots. Conversely, Ireland (from 9th to 65th) fell 56 spots.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed July 12, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed July 13, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_4D4249A1_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.
Office for National Statistics. 2021. "X01: Labour Force Survey Single-Month Estimates." Accessed July 13, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.