The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of March 2021 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont are the only states with a rate below three percent.
Findings
- The difference between the states with the lowest unemployment rate, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont and the state with the highest, Greece, is 12.90 percentage points (down from 13.20 last month and down from 14.50 last year). South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont had the lowest rate last month and Czechia had the lowest rate last year. Greece had the highest rate last month and the highest rate last year.
- Greece has 5.45 times the unemployment rate that Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont do. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 5.40 last month and down from 8.63 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.25 (down from 6.35 the previous month and up from 5.00 last year) and the mean 6.85 (down from 6.96 the previous month and up from 5.94 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 5.10 (down from 5.20 last month and up from 3.75 last year) and the mean 5.46 (down from 5.60 the previous month and up from 3.88 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 5.55 (down from 5.70 last month and up from 4.00 last year) and the mean 5.96 (down from 6.09 the previous month and up from 4.62 last year).
- Of the 78 states, 17 (11 US, 6 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 54 saw an improvement (37 US, 17 EU), and 7 saw the rate increase (2 US, 5 EU).
- Of the 78 states, 2 (2 US, 0 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 4 saw an improvement (3 US, 1 EU), and 72 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year (45 US, 27 EU).
Caveats
- Data is from March 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from February 2021, the United Kingdom which is from January 2021, and Greece which is from December 2020 (previous month and year rates also reflect the respective one, two, and three 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, Lithuania had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.7 percentage points. Sweden had the worst performance rising 0.5 percentage points. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 0.6 percentage point drop while Hawaii had the worst performance with a 6.9 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, New Hampshire had the best performance over the previous month with a 9.09% drop in the rate while Sweden had the worst performance with a 5.56% rise in the rate. Year over year, Nebraska had the best performance with a 6.45% drop in the rate while Hawaii had the worst performance with a 328.57% rise in the rate.
Of the 78 states, 15 states (12 US, 3 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (up from 13 - 10 US, 3 EU - last month and down from 38 - 31 US, 7 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages, 51 (32 US, 19 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 53 - 34 US, 19 EU - last month, up from 38 - 19 US, 19 EU - last year), and 12 (6 US, 6 EU) have a rate above eight percent (same as 12 - 6 US, 6 EU - last month, up from 2 - 0 US, 2 EU - last year).
Hungary (from 26th lowest unemployment rate to 22nd lowest out of 78), Ohio (from 29th to 25th), Bulgaria (from 36th to 32nd), and Illinois (from 61rd to 57th) rose 4 spots between last month and this month. On the other hand, Cyprus (from 52nd to 57th) fell 5 spots. Year-over-year, Florida (from 49th to 25th) and Ohio (from 49th to 25th) rose 24 spots. Conversely, Hawaii (from 2nd to 74th) fell 72 spots.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed May 17, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed May 18, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_B05C663_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 May 18, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.