The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of May 2020 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Czechia is the only state 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 22.90 percentage points (down from 27.90 last month and up from 16.10 last year). Czechia had the lowest rate last month and the lowest rate last year. Nevada had the highest rate last month while Greece had the highest rate last year.
- Nevada has 10.54 times the unemployment rate that Czechia does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 13.68 last month and up from 9.05 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.55 (up from 5.35 the previous month and up from 5.30 last year) and the mean 6.61 (up from 6.41 the previous month and up from 6.00 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 12.15 (down from 13.70 last month and up from 3.50 last year) and the mean 12.36 (down from 14.23 the previous month and up from 3.59 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 9.85 (down from 11.50 last month and up from 3.70 last year) and the mean 10.29 (down from 11.42 the previous month and up from 4.45 last year).
- Three states (2 from the US and 1 from the EU) did not see a change in their unemployment rate from the previous month, 49 saw an improvement (43 from the US and 6 from the EU), and 26 saw their rate increase (5 from the US and 21 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 May 2020 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from April 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from March 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, Mississippi had the greatest improvement over the previous month dropping 5.7 percentage points. Cyprus had the biggest spike rising 1.3 percentage points. Year over year, Greece had the greatest improvement with a 3.7 percentage point drop while Nevada had the greatest deterioration with a 21.3 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Nebraska had the greatest improvement over the previous month with a 40.23% drop in its rate while Estonia had the biggest deterioration with a 25.00% rise in its rate. Year over year, Italy had the greatest improvement with a 22.00% drop in its rate while Hawaii had the greatest deterioration with a 737.04% rise in its rate.
Five states (0 from the US and 5 from the EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (down from 6 - 0 US, 6 EU - last month and down from 42 - 34 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 (up from 15 - 0 US, 15 EU - last month, down from 32 - 16 US, 16 EU - last year), and 57 (49 from the US and 8 from the EU) have a rate above eight percent (same as 57 - 50 US, 7 EU - last month, up from 4 - 0 US, 4 EU - last year).
Arizona (from 48th lowest unemployment rate to 26th lowest) bested 22 states between last month and this month. On the other hand, Cyprus (from 28th to 46th) was bested by 18 states. Year-over-year, Portugal (from 70th to 15th) and Italy (from 76th to 21st) bested 55 states. Conversely, Hawaii (from 5th to 77th) was bested by 72 states.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2020. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed July 6, 2020. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2020. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed July 7, 2020. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-4B77E5C8_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=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.