The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU and US state as of March 2019 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. The Czech Republic continues to be the only state with an unemployment rate below two percent; it is also the only EU state with an unemployment rate below three percent. Ten US states have a rate below three percent.

Findings

The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, the Czech Republic, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 16.6 percentage points (up from 16.5 last month and down from 18.4 last year). The Czech Republic and Greece had the lowest and highest rates respectively both last month and last year.

Greece has 9.74 times the unemployment rate that the Czech Republic does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 9.68 last month and up from 9.36 last year.

The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.40 (up from 5.20 the previous month but down from 6.00 last year) and the mean 6.08 (down from 6.11 the previous month and down from 6.84 last year).

The median unemployment rate in the 50 US states is 3.70 (down from 3.75 last month, and down from 3.95 last year) and the mean 3.70 (down from 3.72 the previous month and down from 3.86 last year).

The median unemployment rate in the 78 EU and US states is 3.90 (same as last month, but down from 4.20 last year) and the mean 4.55 (down from 4.58 the previous month and down from 4.93 last year).

Twenty-six states (19 from the US and 7 from the EU) did not see a change in their unemployment rate from the previous month, 33 saw an improvement (17 from the US and 16 from the EU), and 19 states saw their rate increase (14 from the US and 5 from the EU).

Five states (5 from the US and 0 from the EU) did not see a change in their unemployment rate from last year, while 61 saw an improvement (35 from the US and 26 from the EU), and 12 saw their unemployment rate increase over the year (10 from the US and 2 from the EU).

Caveats

Data is from March 2019 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from February 2019 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from January 2019 (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, Ireland, Italy, and Lithuania had the greatest improvement over the previous month dropping 0.3 percentage points. Sweden had the biggest spike in its rate rising 0.4 percentage points. Year over year, Estonia and Greece had the greatest improvement with a 2.1 percentage point drop while Sweden and Colorado had the greatest deterioration with a 0.6 percentage point rise.

In relative terms, Ireland had the greatest improvement over the previous month with a 6.00% drop in its rate while Estonia had the biggest deterioration with a 6.98% rise in its rate. Year over year, Estonia had the greatest improvement with a 31.34% drop in its rate while Hawaii had the greatest deterioration with a 21.74% rise in its rate.

Forty-one states (33 from the US and 8 from the EU) have an unemployment rate below four percent (down from 42 - 34 US, 8 EU - last month and up from 30 - 25 US, 5 EU - last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Thirty-three (17 from the US and 16 from the EU) have a rate between four and eight percent (up from 32 - 16 US, 16 EU - last month, down from 42 - 25 US, 17 EU - last year), and four (all from the EU) have a rate above eight percent (same as last month, down from six last year - all from the EU).

Wyoming bested 5 other states between last month and this month, going from a rate of 3.9% to a rate of 3.7%. These are (in increasing order of unemployment rate): Romania, the United Kingdom, Maryland, Texas, and Connecticut. On the other hand, Sweden, Mississippi, Estonia, Maryland, and Kansas were each bested by three states.

Sources

Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2019. "State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) News Release." Accessed May 7, 2019. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.htm.

Eurostat. 2019. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed May 6, 2019. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-64E038A_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.