The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of October 2021 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Nebraska, Utah, Czechia, Oklahoma, Idaho, South Dakota, Vermont, the Netherlands, and New Hampshire, 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, Spain, is 12.60 percentage points (same as 12.60 last month and down from 13.80 last year). Nebraska had the lowest rate last month and Czechia and Poland had the lowest rate last year. Spain had the highest rate last month and Greece had the highest rate last year.
- Spain has 7.63 times the unemployment rate that Nebraska does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 7.30 last month and up from 5.31 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.75 (same as 5.75 the previous month and down from 6.30 last year) and the mean 6.17 (down from 6.25 the previous month and down from 7.21 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 4.35 (down from 4.65 last month and down from 6.00 last year) and the mean 4.58 (down from 4.75 the previous month and down from 6.45 last year).
- The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 5.10 (down from 5.20 last month and down from 6.15 last year) and the mean 5.15 (down from 5.29 the previous month and down from 6.72 last year).
- Of the 78 states, 15 (4 US, 11 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 55 saw an improvement (43 US, 12 EU), and 8 saw the rate increase (3 US, 5 EU).
- Of the 78 states, 1 (0 US, 1 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 73 saw an improvement (49 US, 24 EU), and 4 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year (1 US, 3 EU).
Caveats
- Data is from October 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from September 2021, and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from August 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, Finland had the best performance over the previous month dropping 1.0 percentage points. Austria had the worst performance rising 0.6 percentage points. Year over year, Hawaii had the best performance with a 7.7 percentage point drop while Belgium had the worst performance with a 0.5 percentage point rise.
In relative terms, Finland had the best performance over the previous month with a 12.99% drop in the rate while Austria had the worst performance with a 11.54% rise in the rate. Year over year, Hawaii had the best performance with a 55.00% drop in the rate while Belgium had the worst performance with a 8.62% rise in the rate.
Of the 78 states, 26 states (20 US, 6 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (up from 22 - 17 US, 5 EU - last month, up from 5 - 3 US, 2 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages, 48 (30 US, 18 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 52 - 33 US, 19 EU - last month, down from 53 - 38 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 20 - 9 US, 11 EU - last year).
Arizona (from 50th lowest unemployment rate to 41st lowest out of 78) rose 9 spots between last month and this month. On the other hand, Austria (from 39th to 54th) fell 15 spots. Year-over-year, Tennessee (from 57th to 29th) rose 28 spots. Conversely, Belgium (from 34th to 59th) fell 25 spots.
Sources
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2021. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed December 9, 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed December 12, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-53DC17CA_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 December 12, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.