EU and US Unemployment Rates, August 2020

Oct 8, 2020
Unemployment Rate in EU and US States

The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of August 2020 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior.  Czechia is the only state with an unemployment rate below three percent.  No US states have a rate below three percent.

Findings

  • The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, Czechia, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 15.60 percentage points (up from 14.70 last month and up from 15.20 last year).  Czechia had the lowest rate last month and 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 Czechia does.  The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 6.65 last month and down from 9.00 last year.
  • The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.50 (same as 6.50 the previous month and up from 5.10 last year) and the mean 7.05 (up from 7.00 the previous month and up from 5.94 last year).
  • The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 7.20 (down from 8.60 last month and up from 3.50 last year) and the mean 7.70 (down from 9.20 the previous month and up from 3.55 last year).
  • The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 6.90 (down from 7.90 last month and up from 3.75 last year) and the mean 7.47 (down from 8.41 the previous month and up from 4.41 last year).
  • Three states (1 US, 2 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 58 saw an improvement (45 US, 13 EU), and 17 saw the rate increase (4 US, 13 EU).
  • One state (0 US, 1 EU) saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, while three saw an improvement (0 US, 3 EU), and 74 saw the unemployment rate increase over the year (50 US, 24 EU).

Caveats

  • Data is from August 2020 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from July 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from June 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, Massachusetts had the best performance over the previous month dropping 4.9 percentage points.  Kentucky had the worst performance rising 3.1 percentage points.  Year over year, France had the best performance with a 1.0 percentage point drop while Hawaii had the worst performance with a 9.8 percentage point rise.

In relative terms, Arizona had the best performance over the previous month with a 44.86% drop in its rate while Kentucky had the worst performance with a 68.89% rise in its rate.  Year over year, France had the best performance with a 11.76% drop in its rate while Hawaii had the worst performance with a 362.96% rise in its rate.

Three states (0 US, 3 EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as 3 - 0 US, 3 EU - last month and down from 48 - 39 US, 9 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages.  Forty-nine (33 US, 16 EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (up from 41 - 23 US, 18 EU - last month, up from 26 - 11 US, 15 EU - last year), and 26 (17 US, 9 EU) have a rate above eight percent (down from 34 - 27 US, 7 EU - last month, up from 4 - 0 US, 4 EU - last year).

Arizona (from 64th lowest unemployment rate to 23rd lowest) bested 41 states between last month and this month.  On the other hand, Kentucky (from 6th to 48th) was bested by 42 states.  Year-over-year, Slovenia (from 58th to 11th) and Belgium (from 63rd to 16th) each bested 47 states.  Conversely, Hawaii (from 8th to 73rd) was bested by 65 states.

Sources

Bureau of Labor Statistics.  2020.  "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release."  Accessed October 6, 2020.  https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.

Eurostat.  2020.  "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average."  Accessed October 7, 2020.  https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-2815C862_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-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624SEX,T;DS-055624AGE,TOTAL;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.