The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of July 2021 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Czechia, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Utah are the only states with a rate below three percent.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, Nebraska, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 13.30 percentage points (down from 14.60 last month and down from 13.90 last year). Nebraska 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 6.78 times the unemployment rate that Nebraska does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 6.84 last month and up from 5.79 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.05 (down from 6.45 the previous month and down from 6.95 last year) and the mean 6.41 (down from 6.74 the previous month and down from 7.31 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 4.90 (down from 4.95 last month and down from 8.65 last year) and the mean 5.04 (down from 5.16 the previous month and down from 9.03 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 5.15 (down from 5.25 last month and down from 8.00 last year) and the mean 5.53 (down from 5.73 the previous month and down from 8.42 last year).
- Of the 78 states, 11 (9 US, 2 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 58 saw an improvement (35 US, 23 EU), and 9 saw the rate increase (6 US, 3 EU).
- Of the 78 states, 1 (0 US, 1 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 75 saw an improvement (50 US, 25 EU), and 2 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year (0 US, 2 EU).
Caveats
- Data is from July 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from June 2021, and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from May 2021 (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, Cyprus had the best performance over the previous month dropping 3.0 percentage points. Ohio had the worst performance rising 0.2 percentage points. Year over year, Nevada had the best performance with a 8.9 percentage point drop while the United Kingdom had the worst performance with a 1.1 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Cyprus had the best performance over the previous month with a 36.59% drop in the rate while Ohio had the worst performance with a 3.85% rise in the rate. Year over year, New Hampshire had the best performance with a 64.20% drop in the rate while the United Kingdom had the worst performance with a 28.95% rise in the rate.
Of the 78 states, 19 states (14 US, 5 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as 17 - 11 US, 6 EU - last month, up from 3 - 0 US, 3 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages, 55 (36 US, 19 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 56 - 39 US, 17 EU - last month, up from 36 - 21 US, 15 EU - last year), and 4 (0 US, 4 EU) have a rate above eight percent (down from 5 - 0 US, 5 EU - last month, down from 39 - 29 US, 10 EU - last year).
Cyprus (from 74th lowest unemployment rate to 40th lowest out of 78) rose 34 spots between last month and this month. On the other hand, Finland (from 65th to 73rd) fell 8 spots. Year-over-year, New Hampshire (from 40th to 4th) rose 36 spots. Conversely, Bulgaria (from 9th to 47th) fell 38 spots.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed September 6, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed September 7, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-580F687B_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 September 7, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.