The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of January 2019 (unless otherwise noted), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. The Eu has both the highest and the lowest unemployment rates.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, the Czech Republic, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 16.2 percentage points.
- Greece has 8.71 times the unemployment rate that the Czech Republic does.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.40 (up from 5.25 the previous month but down from 5.75 the previous year) and the mean 6.21 (down from 6.30 the previous month and down from 7.03 the previous year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 3.75 (up from 3.70 the previous month but down from 3.95 the previous year) and the mean 3.72 (up from 3.70 the previous month but down from 3.93 the previous year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 3.90 (same as the previous month but down from 4.30 the previous year) and the mean 4.62 (down from 4.64 the previous month and down from the previous year's 5.04).
- Thirty-two states did not see a change in their unemployment rate from the previous month (26 from the US and 6 from the EU), 21 saw an improvement (7 from the US and 14 from the EU), and 25 states saw their rate increase over the previous month (17 from the US and 8 from the EU).
- On an annual basis, five states have the same unemployment rate (3 from the US and 2 from the EU), 64 have a lower rate now than one year ago (38 from the US and 26 from the EU), and nine have a higher unemployment rate than one year ago (all of which are from the US).
Caveats
- Data is from January 2019 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from December 2018 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from November 2018.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
Cyprus had the largest monthly drop in its unemployment rate at 1.4 percentage points while Greece saw the largest drop year over year at 2.8 percentage points. Ireland saw the largest monthly rise at 0.4 percentage points and Colorado saw the largest increase in unemployment on a yearly basis at 0.8 percentage points.
Of the 40 states that have an unemployment rate below four percent which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages (same as last month but 11 more than last year), 32 are from the US and 8 are from the EU. Of the 34 which have a rate between four and eight percent (one more than last month but eight less than last year), 18 are from the US and 16 are from the EU. Four states have a rate higher than eight percent (one less than last month and three less than last year) and all are from the EU.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2019. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed February 6, 2019. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2019. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed March 21, 2019. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_6C6753DD_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-055624SEX,T;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624AGE,TOTAL;DS-055624INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;&rankName1=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName2=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=GEO_1_2_0_1&rankName4=AGE_1_2_-1_2&rankName5=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName6=SEX_1_2_-1_2&rankName7=S-ADJ_1_2_-1_2&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.