EU and US Unemployment Rates, April 2019

Jun 11, 2019
Unemployment Rate in EU and US States

The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of April 2019 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior.  Czechia is the only EU state with an unemployment rate below three percent.  Twelve US states have a rate below three percent.

Findings

  • The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, Czechia, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 16.3 percentage points (down from 16.6 last month and down from 18.3 last year).  Czechia and Greece had the lowest and highest rates respectively last month while Czechia and Hawaii had the lowest rates last year, Greece also had the highest rate last year.
  • Greece has 8.76 times the unemployment rate that Czechia does.  The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 9.30 last month and down from 8.96 last year.
  • The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.40 (down from 5.45 the previous month and down from 5.95 last year) and the mean 6.01 (down from 6.10 the previous month and down from 6.75 last year).
  • The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 3.60 (down from 3.70 last month and down from 3.95 last year) and the mean 3.66 (down from 3.70 the previous month and down from 3.83 last year).
  • The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 3.80 (down from 3.90 last month and down from 4.15 last year) and the mean 4.50 (down from 4.56 the previous month and down from 4.88 last year).
  • Thirty-one states (19 from the US and 12 from the EU) did not see a change in their unemployment rate from the previous month, 38 saw an improvement (25 from the US and 13 from the EU), and nine saw their rate increase (6 from the US and 3 from the EU).
  • Six states (4 from the US and 2 from the EU) did not see a change in their unemployment rate from last year, while 59 saw an improvement (34 from the US and 25 from the EU), and 13 saw their unemployment rate increase over the year (12 from the US and 1 from the EU).

Caveats

  • Data is from April 2019 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from March 2019 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from February 2019 (previous month and year rates also reflect the respective one and two 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, Sweden had the greatest improvement over the previous month dropping 0.8 percentage points.  South Carolina and Portugal had the biggest spike in their rate rising 0.2 percentage points.  Year over year, Greece had the greatest improvement with a 2.2 percentage point drop while Hawaii had the greatest deterioration with a 0.5 percentage point rise.

In relative terms, Sweden had the greatest improvement over the previous month with a 11.94% drop in its rate while South Carolina had the biggest deterioration with a 6.25% rise in its rate.  Year over year, Estonia had the greatest improvement with a 31.67% drop in its rate while Hawaii had the greatest deterioration with a 21.74% rise in its rate.

Forty-two states (35 from the US and 7 from the EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (down from 42 - 34 US, 8 EU - last month and up from 30 - 25 US, 5 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages.  Thirty-two (15 from the US and 17 from the EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 32 - 16 US, 16 EU - last month, down from 42 - 25 US, 17 EU - last year), and four (all from the EU) have a rate above eight percent (same as last month, down from six last year - all from the EU).

Estonia bested 5 other states between last month and this month, going from a rate of 4.6% to a rate of 4.1%.  These are (in increasing order of unemployment rate): California, Ohio, Oregon, Illinois, and Slovenia.  On the other hand, South Carolina was bested by five states as it went from a rate of 3.2% to a rate of 3.4%.  These are (in increasing order of unemployment rate): Delaware, Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, and the Netherlands.  Year-over-year, Estonia bested 16 other states as it went from a rate of 6.0% to a rate of 4.1%, these are (in increasing order of unemployment rate): California, Ohio, Oregon, Illinois, Slovenia, Louisiana, Bulgaria, Ireland, Washington, Austria, Arizona, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Mexico, Denmark, and Luxembourg.  Conversely, Colorado was bested by 11 states as it went from a rate of 3.0% to a rate of 3.4%, these are (in increasing order of unemployment rate): South Dakota, Massachusetts, Utah, Virginia, Delaware, Tennessee, Germany, Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, and the Netherlands.

Sources

Bureau of Labor Statistics.  2019.  "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release."  Accessed June 9, 2019.  https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.

Eurostat.  2019.  "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average."  Accessed June 6, 2019.  http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-A11AF44_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-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624SEX,T;DS-055624AGE,TOTAL;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.