The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of June 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, Massachusetts, is 14.80 percentage points (down from 22.90 last month and down from 15.70 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.
- Massachusetts has 6.69 times the unemployment rate that Czechia does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 10.54 last month and down from 9.72 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.20 (up from 5.90 the previous month and up from 5.25 last year) and the mean 6.94 (up from 6.74 the previous month and up from 5.94 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 9.05 (down from 12.20 last month and up from 3.45 last year) and the mean 9.86 (down from 12.42 the previous month and up from 3.57 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 8.35 (down from 9.70 last month and up from 3.70 last year) and the mean 8.81 (down from 10.38 the previous month and up from 4.42 last year).
- Three states (0 from the US and 3 from the EU) saw no change in their unemployment rate from the previous month, 50 saw an improvement (43 from the US and 7 from the EU), and 25 saw their rate increase (7 from the US and 18 from the EU).
- One state (1 from the US and 0 from the EU) saw no change in their unemployment rate from last year, while four saw an improvement (0 from the US and 4 from the EU), and 73 saw their unemployment rate increase over the year (49 from the US and 24 from the EU).
Caveats
- Data is from June 2020 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from May 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from April 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, Nevada had the best performance over the previous month dropping 10.3 percentage points. Nebraska had the worst performance rising 1.4 percentage points. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 2.0 percentage point drop while Massachusetts had the worst performance with a 14.5 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Kentucky had the best performance over the previous month with a 60.55% drop in its rate while Nebraska had the worst performance with a 26.42% rise in its rate. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 11.43% drop in its rate while Massachusetts had the worst performance with a 500.00% rise in its rate.
Three states (0 from the US and 3 from the EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (down from 4 - 0 US, 4 EU - last month and down from 44 - 36 US, 8 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Thirty-five (18 from the US and 17 from the EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (up from 16 - 1 US, 15 EU - last month, up from 30 - 14 US, 16 EU - last year), and 40 (32 from the US and 8 from the EU) have a rate above eight percent (down from 58 - 49 US, 9 EU - last month, up from 4 - 0 US, 4 EU - last year).
Kentucky (from 49th lowest unemployment rate to 6th lowest) bested 43 states between last month and this month. On the other hand, Arizona (from 27th to 56th) was bested by 29 states. Year-over-year, Ireland (from 62nd to 13th) and Belgium (from 63rd to 14th) each bested 49 states. Conversely, Massachusetts (from 10th to 78th) was bested by 68 states.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2020. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed August 11, 2020. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2020. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed August 12, 2020. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_76E54A62_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.