The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of January 2021 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. No states have a rate below three percent.
Findings
- The difference between the states with the lowest unemployment rate, Poland, South Dakota, and Utah, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 13.10 percentage points (down from 13.30 last month and down from 14.60 last year). Czechia had the lowest rate last month and Czechia and Hawaii had the lowest rate last year. Greece had the highest rate last month and the highest rate last year.
- Greece has 5.23 times the unemployment rate that Poland, South Dakota, and Utah do. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 5.29 last month and down from 8.30 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.45 (up from 6.35 the previous month and up from 5.10 last year) and the mean 6.91 (same as 6.91 the previous month and up from 5.85 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 5.30 (down from 5.60 last month and up from 3.50 last year) and the mean 5.72 (down from 5.98 the previous month and up from 3.54 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 5.75 (down from 5.85 last month and up from 3.70 last year) and the mean 6.15 (down from 6.32 the previous month and up from 4.37 last year).
- Of the 78 states, four (0 US, 4 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 53 saw an improvement (43 US, 10 EU), and 21 saw the rate increase (7 US, 14 EU).
- Of the 78 states, zero (0 US, 0 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, three saw an improvement (0 US, 3 EU), and 75 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year (50 US, 25 EU).
Caveats
- Data is from January 2021 except for Estonia, Finland, Hungary, and Italy which are from December 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from November 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, Michigan had the best performance over the previous month dropping 2.5 percentage points. Finland had the worst performance rising 0.6 percentage points. Year over year, Italy had the best performance with a 0.6 percentage point drop while Hawaii had the worst performance with a 8.2 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Michigan had the best performance over the previous month with a 30.49% drop in the rate while Romania and Finland had the worst performance with a 7.69% rise in the rate. Year over year, Italy had the best performance with a 6.25% drop in the rate while Hawaii had the worst performance with a 410.00% rise in the rate.
Of the 78 states, 12 states (9 US, 3 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (up from 10 - 7 US, 3 EU - last month and down from 45 - 37 US, 8 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages, 53 (35 US, 18 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 54 - 35 US, 19 EU - last month, up from 29 - 13 US, 16 EU - last year), and 13 (6 US, 7 EU) have a rate above eight percent (down from 14 - 8 US, 6 EU - last month, up from 4 - 0 US, 4 EU - last year).
Michigan (from 65th lowest unemployment rate to 38th lowest out of 78) rose 27 spots between last month and this month. On the other hand, Romania (from 27th to 36th) and Finland (from 59th to 68th) fell 9 spots. Year-over-year, Wyoming (from 52nd to 26th) rose 26 spots. Conversely, Hawaii (from 1st to 76th) fell 75 spots.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed March 22, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed March 23, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-217AA5A1_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-055624AGE,TOTAL;DS-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624SEX,T;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.
Office for National Statistics. 2021. "X01: Labour Force Survey Single-Month Estimates." Accessed March 23, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.