The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of April 2020 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Czechia and Poland are the only states with an unemployment rate below three percent. No 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, Nevada, is 26.10 percentage points (up from 14.20 last month and up from 16.40 last year). Czechia and North Dakota had the lowest rate last month while Czechia had the lowest rate last year. Greece had the highest rate last month and last year.
- Nevada has 13.43 times the unemployment rate that Czechia does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 8.10 last month and up from 9.20 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.90 (up from 5.30 the previous month and down from 5.35 last year) and the mean 6.42 (up from 5.90 the previous month and up from 6.01 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 12.90 (up from 3.85 last month and up from 3.50 last year) and the mean 13.49 (up from 4.11 the previous month and up from 3.62 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 10.90 (up from 4.35 last month and up from 3.70 last year) and the mean 10.95 (up from 4.76 the previous month and up from 4.48 last year).
- Five states (0 from the US and 5 from the EU) did not see a change in their unemployment rate from the previous month, three saw an improvement (0 from the US and 3 from the EU), and 70 saw their rate increase (50 from the US and 20 from the EU).
- Zero states (0 from the US and 0 from the EU) did not see a change in their unemployment rate from last year, while six saw an improvement (0 from the US and 6 from the EU), and 72 saw their unemployment rate increase over the year (50 from the US and 22 from the EU).
Caveats
- Data is from April 2020 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from March 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from February 2020 (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, Italy had the greatest improvement over the previous month dropping 1.7 percentage points. Nevada had the biggest spike rising 21.3 percentage points. Year over year, Italy had the greatest improvement with a 3.9 percentage point drop while Nevada had the greatest deterioration with a 24.2 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Italy had the greatest improvement over the previous month with a 21.25% drop in its rate while Hawaii had the biggest deterioration with a 829.17% rise in its rate. Year over year, Italy had the greatest improvement with a 38.24% drop in its rate while Hawaii had the greatest deterioration with a 725.93% rise in its rate.
Six states (0 from the US and 6 from the EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (down from 34 - 26 US, 8 EU - last month and down from 41 - 33 US, 8 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Sixteen (1 from the US and 15 from the EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 42 - 24 US, 18 EU - last month, down from 33 - 17 US, 16 EU - last year), and 56 (49 from the US and 7 from the EU) have a rate above eight percent (up from 2 - 0 US, 2 EU - last month, up from 4 - 0 US, 4 EU - last year).
Italy (from 76th lowest unemployment rate to 16th lowest) bested 60 states between last month and this month. On the other hand, Hawaii (from 3rd to 76th) was bested by 73 states. Year-over-year, Italy (from 76th to 16th) bested 60 states. Conversely, Hawaii (from 5th to 76th) was bested by 71 states.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2020. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed June 8, 2020. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2020. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed June 9, 2020. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_1D6465A3_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.