The Unemployment Rate for Each State, from 7.9% in Connecticut to 28.2% in Nevada

by Wolf Richter • May 22, 2020

How rates soared by state from February to March to April.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

The unemployment rates by state for April were released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They range from 7.9% in Connecticut to a catastrophic 28.2% in Nevada, up from 3.6% in February. Every state has its own challenges. In Nevada, the casinos and shows and hotels and everything that comes along with them have been put on ice, and people in the US and from around the world aren’t traveling to Nevada anymore to gamble.
Hawaii, another economy where tourism is hugely important, has seen its unemployment rate jump nearly nine-fold from 2.6% March to 22.3% in April.
The unemployment rates of the big four states – they account for one-third of the total US population – are in the same double-digit middle-of-road-ish horrible range, middle-of-road within the spectrum from 7.9% to 28.2%, with unemployment rates of 12.8% in Texas, 12.9% in Florida, 14.5% in New York, and 15.5% in California.
These unemployment rates are not from the weekly unemployment claims report released yesterday. But they are from the monthly jobs data that is based on household surveys that were collected in mid-April. The national unemployment rate and related data were released on May 8 as part of the monthly jobs report, which I covered back then… Collapse of the Labor Market in 5 Charts: Employment Plunged to 1999 Level. Everything’s a Gut-Wrenching Record. Today’s release provides the regional details.

Since this data was collected in mid-April, it shows unemployment rates well before their peaks. The next jobs report, to be released in early June, will show the results from household surveys collected in mid-May. And those unemployment rates may be closer to the peak.
The table below shows the unemployment rates for each state in April (second column), followed to the right by the rates of partial-Covid March (third column) and pre-Covid February (fourth column). The states are in order from the lowest unemployment rate to the highest unemployment rate.
The state’s population (Census 2019 estimates), expressed in millions, is in the fifth column on the right. If the right columns get clipped on your smartphone, hold your device in landscape position.
State
 Apr
 Mar
 Feb
 Pop.
Connecticut 7.9 3.7 3.8 3.6
Minnesota 8.1 3.1 3.1 5.6
Nebraska 8.3 4.2 2.9 1.9
North Dakota 8.5 2.2 3.6 0.8
Wyoming 9.2 3.7 3.5 0.6
Utah 9.7 3.6 3.5 3.2
Missouri 9.7 4.5 3.5 6.1
Maryland 9.9 3.3 3.3 6.0
South Dakota 10.2 3.3 2.5 0.9
Arkansas 10.2 4.8 3.5 3.0
Iowa 10.2 3.7 2.8 3.2
Maine 10.6 3.2 3.2 1.3
Virginia 10.6 3.3 2.4 8.5
Kansas 11.2 3.1 3.1 2.9
Montana 11.3 3.5 3.5 1.1
New Mexico 11.3 5.9 4.8 2.1
Colorado 11.3 4.5 2.5 5.8
Idaho 11.5 2.6 2.7 1.8
Georgia 11.9 4.2 3.1 10.6
South Carolina 12.1 2.6 3.4 5.1
North Carolina 12.2 4.4 3.4 10.5
Arizona 12.6 5.5 4.5 7.3
Texas 12.8 4.7 3.4 29.0
Alaska 12.9 5.6 5.8 0.7
Alabama 12.9 3.5 2.7 4.9
Florida 12.9 4.3 2.8 21.5
Oklahoma 13.7 3.1 4.1 4.0
Wisconsin 14.1 3.4 4.9 5.8
Oregon 14.2 3.3 3.2 4.2
Delaware 14.3 5.1 3.9 1.0
Louisiana 14.5 6.9 5.2 4.6
New York 14.5 4.5 3.7 19.5
Tennessee 14.7 3.5 3.3 6.8
Massachusetts 15.1 2.9 2.8 6.9
Pennsylvania 15.1 6.0 3.3 12.8
West Virginia 15.2 6.1 2.6 1.8
New Jersey 15.3 3.8 3.8 8.9
Mississippi 15.4 5.3 5.4 3.0
Kentucky 15.4 5.8 4.2 4.5
Washington 15.4 5.1 2.6 7.6
California 15.5 5.3 3.9 39.5
Vermont 15.6 3.2 2.5 0.6
New Hampshire 16.3 2.6 2.6 1.4
Illinois 16.4 4.6 3.4 12.7
Ohio 16.8 5.5 2.2 11.7
Indiana 16.9 3.2 3.1 6.7
Rhode Island 17.0 4.6 4.7 1.1
Hawaii 22.3 2.6 2.7 1.4
Michigan 22.7 4.1 3.6 10.0
Nevada 28.2 6.3 3.6 3.1
Tens of millions of people, many at the lower end of the income scale, lost their jobs. But stocks surge thanks to the Fed’s helicopter money for Wall Street & asset holders.

https://wolfstreet.com/2020/05/22/th...8-2-in-nevada/