The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of August 2021 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Czechia, Idaho, Nebraska, 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 12.70 percentage points (down from 13.50 last month and down from 14.80 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 6.77 times the unemployment rate that Nebraska does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 6.87 last month and up from 6.48 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.20 (up from 6.15 the previous month and down from 6.90 last year) and the mean 6.30 (down from 6.43 the previous month and down from 7.36 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 4.85 (down from 4.90 last month and down from 7.10 last year) and the mean 4.92 (down from 5.04 the previous month and down from 7.75 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 5.00 (down from 5.15 last month and down from 7.10 last year) and the mean 5.41 (down from 5.54 the previous month and down from 7.61 last year).
- Of the 78 states, 20 (11 US, 9 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 49 saw an improvement (36 US, 13 EU), and 9 saw the rate increase (3 US, 6 EU).
- Of the 78 states, 1 (0 US, 1 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 73 saw an improvement (50 US, 23 EU), and 4 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year (0 US, 4 EU).
Caveats
- Data is from August 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from July 2021, and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from June 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, Greece had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.9 percentage points. Sweden had the worst performance rising 0.4 percentage points. Year over year, Hawaii had the best performance with a 7.1 percentage point drop while the United Kingdom had the worst performance with a 0.6 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Cyprus had the best performance over the previous month with a 15.38% drop in the rate while Sweden had the worst performance with a 4.76% rise in the rate. Year over year, Alabama had the best performance with a 56.34% drop in the rate while the United Kingdom had the worst performance with a 15.00% rise in the rate.
Of the 78 states, 20 states (14 US, 6 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (up from 19 - 14 US, 5 EU - last month, up from 2 - 0 US, 2 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages, 54 (36 US, 18 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 55 - 36 US, 19 EU - last month, up from 46 - 31 US, 15 EU - last year), and 4 (0 US, 4 EU) have a rate above eight percent (same as 4 - 0 US, 4 EU - last month, down from 30 - 19 US, 11 EU - last year).
Cyprus (from 40th lowest unemployment rate to 30th lowest out of 78) rose 10 spots between last month and this month. On the other hand, Massachusetts (from 33rd to 39th) and Ireland (from 54th to 60th) fell 6 spots. Year-over-year, Alabama (from 31st to 8th) rose 31 spots. Conversely, Bulgaria (from 12th to 46th) fell 34 spots.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed October 15, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed October 18, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-4FA1EA7B_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 October 18, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.