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Employment–population ratio less than 50.0 percent for 10 states in May 2020

July 15, 2020

In May 2020, the proportion of the statewide civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over with a job was less than 50.0 percent in 10 states. Nevada had the lowest employment–population ratio in May 2020, at 41.9 percent. This compared with 61.1 percent in May 2019.

 Employment-population ratios in May, by state, 2000 to 2020
State May 2000 May 2001 May 2002 May 2003 May 2004 May 2005 May 2006 May 2007 May 2008 May 2009 May 2010 May 2011 May 2012 May 2013 May 2014

Alabama

60.4% 59.4% 58.1% 58.3% 58.5% 59.0% 59.1% 58.8% 57.7% 53.4% 53.7% 53.4% 53.4% 53.8% 53.2%

Alaska

68.9 68.0 66.9 66.6 66.0 66.9 66.8 66.2 66.5 64.9 64.4 64.0 63.5 63.2 63.1

Arizona

62.7 62.4 62.0 61.8 61.7 61.6 61.8 61.4 60.2 57.3 57.4 55.8 55.5 55.0 55.7

Arkansas

59.7 58.5 58.6 57.7 58.5 60.3 60.5 59.9 59.8 57.0 55.6 55.3 55.1 54.0 54.0

California

63.8 63.7 62.4 61.5 61.4 62.0 62.1 62.2 61.4 58.2 56.4 56.0 56.5 57.3 57.6

Colorado

70.5 68.9 67.8 67.7 68.6 68.6 69.2 69.4 68.9 66.2 64.6 63.8 63.5 63.5 64.3

Connecticut

66.5 65.4 64.6 63.8 63.2 63.8 64.8 65.5 65.3 63.5 61.9 61.7 60.9 60.0 61.3

Delaware

66.6 67.6 65.5 63.8 64.0 64.1 64.7 64.1 63.2 59.0 56.4 57.6 57.7 56.6 57.6

District of Columbia

63.8 63.1 62.3 62.1 61.7 63.4 63.2 64.1 65.1 62.5 62.5 60.9 62.6 63.7 63.6

Florida

60.6 60.7 58.9 58.7 59.3 60.4 61.4 61.5 60.1 56.1 54.7 54.9 55.5 56.0 56.3

Georgia

67.0 65.9 64.7 64.7 64.4 64.3 64.8 65.0 64.8 59.3 57.5 57.6 58.1 57.9 57.5

Hawaii

64.5 64.7 62.9 62.8 62.6 63.9 64.5 64.3 63.4 59.7 57.6 58.6 57.0 57.5 58.9

Idaho

66.2 66.5 65.5 64.7 64.8 66.5 66.5 66.1 63.6 60.1 59.5 59.4 59.8 59.8 60.5

Illinois

66.7 65.3 62.9 61.8 62.0 62.7 64.1 64.9 64.1 60.5 60.1 59.7 59.9 59.4 60.1

Indiana

66.0 65.1 64.5 64.4 63.7 63.7 64.1 63.3 62.8 58.7 57.4 57.7 57.7 58.0 59.4

Iowa

69.3 69.5 70.3 68.1 67.5 68.5 69.7 69.2 69.5 67.8 66.9 66.2 65.7 66.2 67.3

Kansas

68.1 66.2 66.1 66.5 67.4 67.4 67.4 67.8 67.9 66.7 65.0 64.5 64.3 64.5 65.0

Kentucky

61.2 60.0 58.7 58.3 58.4 58.7 58.9 58.9 57.7 55.6 55.1 55.2 55.7 55.7 54.8

Louisiana

58.8 58.3 56.8 56.7 57.1 58.2 59.3 58.9 59.2 56.9 56.1 54.9 55.1 55.5 56.6

Maine

66.3 64.7 63.6 63.3 63.2 63.5 63.7 63.2 62.9 60.1 59.4 59.6 60.0 60.7 60.5

Maryland

67.7 67.4 66.9 66.4 65.7 65.9 66.3 66.3 66.2 64.3 63.1 63.1 63.0 63.1 62.9

Massachusetts

65.8 65.6 65.0 64.2 63.9 63.7 63.7 63.7 63.1 61.1 61.0 60.7 60.8 60.6 61.4

Michigan

66.4 64.6 61.8 60.8 61.1 61.3 60.9 60.1 58.7 54.7 54.5 53.9 54.4 55.1 56.1

Minnesota

73.1 72.6 71.5 71.0 70.6 70.4 69.9 69.2 68.5 66.6 66.2 66.3 66.4 66.7 66.9

Mississippi

59.8 58.5 56.8 57.2 57.8 57.5 56.1 56.1 56.3 52.6 50.8 53.8 53.4 51.6 50.8

Missouri

67.4 67.4 65.9 65.8 64.8 64.3 64.2 63.7 62.4 60.3 59.9 59.9 60.2 60.1 60.5

Montana

64.8 64.4 63.8 63.4 63.8 63.7 64.6 64.6 63.9 60.9 59.7 59.3 60.2 60.5 60.6

Nebraska

71.6 71.5 70.8 70.9 70.9 70.8 70.5 70.7 70.9 69.5 68.2 68.4 69.1 69.1 68.4

Nevada

67.2 67.1 65.3 64.4 64.1 64.5 65.4 65.6 65.0 60.1 56.6 57.0 57.5 57.9 58.3

New Hampshire

70.6 70.1 68.5 68.1 68.4 68.7 68.5 68.3 68.1 66.1 66.1 65.7 65.5 65.5 65.6

New Jersey

64.3 63.3 62.7 62.2 62.7 63.3 63.5 63.5 63.7 61.4 60.1 59.7 59.8 59.9 59.7

New Mexico

59.8 60.4 60.2 60.2 60.3 60.6 60.9 60.7 60.4 57.5 55.1 54.4 54.0 53.7 54.1

New York

60.0 59.7 59.1 58.6 58.9 59.9 60.1 59.8 60.0 57.9 57.4 56.3 56.3 57.1 56.8

North Carolina

65.4 64.3 62.3 62.8 62.3 62.3 62.9 62.6 61.4 57.6 56.4 56.0 56.4 56.8 57.2

North Dakota

68.5 68.8 67.7 68.0 69.5 69.7 70.6 71.7 72.3 70.1 69.4 70.3 70.9 70.8 70.7

Ohio

64.5 64.4 63.4 63.0 62.6 62.8 63.4 63.6 62.9 59.4 58.6 58.4 58.6 58.4 58.9

Oklahoma

62.4 62.4 61.8 60.7 60.9 61.2 61.2 60.9 61.3 59.8 58.1 58.1 59.1 58.5 58.1

Oregon

65.6 64.0 62.4 61.6 61.3 61.4 62.0 62.3 62.0 58.3 58.4 59.0 57.8 56.3 56.9

Pennsylvania

61.7 61.9 61.5 60.6 60.8 61.3 61.4 61.7 62.0 59.5 58.1 58.1 58.6 58.7 58.9

Rhode Island

64.3 63.4 63.1 63.7 63.2 64.1 64.9 65.1 63.1 60.0 59.9 59.2 58.9 59.4 60.1

South Carolina

63.6 60.5 59.2 59.4 59.6 59.6 59.6 59.6 58.4 54.9 53.6 53.9 54.2 54.6 55.2

South Dakota

71.2 70.7 70.8 70.8 70.7 70.3 70.5 71.2 71.0 68.9 68.0 67.4 67.1 66.7 67.0

Tennessee

62.8 62.2 62.0 61.4 60.2 59.3 61.1 61.7 59.5 56.3 56.7 57.1 56.9 56.1 55.2

Texas

65.4 64.8 63.8 63.5 63.4 63.3 63.4 62.9 62.8 61.0 60.5 60.7 61.0 61.2 61.6

Utah

69.9 68.9 67.5 67.0 67.5 68.6 69.6 70.2 68.8 64.5 64.0 63.1 64.1 65.0 65.4

Vermont

68.0 68.1 68.3 67.8 68.2 68.2 69.0 67.8 67.0 66.3 66.6 66.4 66.0 65.4 65.0

Virginia

66.4 66.3 65.5 65.3 64.9 65.8 66.5 66.7 67.3 64.3 62.7 63.0 62.7 62.7 62.5

Washington

65.3 63.1 62.0 61.9 63.2 64.0 64.2 64.7 64.8 62.4 60.5 59.1 59.3 59.2 59.2

West Virginia

53.5 54.0 52.8 51.6 51.8 52.2 53.2 53.6 53.8 51.8 50.1 49.8 50.3 50.2 49.8

Wisconsin

70.3 69.9 68.6 68.5 68.0 67.2 67.4 67.4 67.3 64.4 63.5 63.7 63.7 63.8 64.2

Wyoming

68.8 69.2 68.1 68.4 68.5 68.4 68.8 69.0 69.2 67.4 65.3 66.2 65.7 65.2 65.4
Employment-population ratios in May, by state, 2000 to 2020 (continued)
State May 2015 May 2016 May 2017 May 2018 May 2019 May 2020

Alabama

53.5% 53.8% 54.5% 55.3% 56.2% 52.2%

Alaska

62.8 61.8 61.3 60.5 60.0 53.5

Arizona

56.4 56.8 57.6 58.1 58.9 55.5

Arkansas

54.9 55.7 55.9 55.8 56.0 51.7

California

58.3 58.8 59.2 59.6 59.7 49.6

Colorado

64.2 64.6 66.0 66.8 67.1 59.7

Connecticut

62.2 62.3 63.0 63.0 63.6 55.6

Delaware

59.3 59.9 59.7 60.2 60.3 50.6

District of Columbia

65.0 65.8 66.0 66.6 67.0 60.9

Florida

55.8 56.1 57.1 57.1 57.2 47.1

Georgia

57.7 58.9 60.2 60.4 60.0 53.4

Hawaii

59.7 60.5 61.1 60.5 59.0 45.0

Idaho

61.2 61.6 61.8 62.3 62.6 57.6

Illinois

60.8 61.4 61.3 61.7 61.8 53.4

Indiana

60.6 61.9 62.1 62.7 62.3 55.5

Iowa

67.3 66.9 66.1 66.8 68.3 61.4

Kansas

64.8 64.4 64.2 64.3 64.5 60.6

Kentucky

54.5 55.1 56.2 56.6 56.6 51.6

Louisiana

56.9 55.8 55.6 55.9 55.7 49.6

Maine

59.9 60.7 61.4 61.1 60.4 54.1

Maryland

63.5 64.1 64.9 65.1 65.9 58.8

Massachusetts

62.2 62.7 63.5 65.1 65.5 52.2

Michigan

56.9 58.2 58.6 59.0 59.1 46.8

Minnesota

67.5 67.6 67.8 67.9 67.9 62.1

Mississippi

51.9 52.6 53.0 52.9 52.7 47.2

Missouri

61.7 62.0 61.8 61.7 61.8 56.1

Montana

60.9 60.9 60.7 60.5 60.5 55.4

Nebraska

67.8 67.5 67.2 67.5 67.7 67.1

Nevada

58.8 58.9 59.6 60.4 61.1 41.9

New Hampshire

66.2 66.6 66.4 66.8 67.2 55.0

New Jersey

60.2 60.5 60.4 60.1 61.0 54.2

New Mexico

54.3 54.1 54.2 54.7 55.2 49.9

New York

57.6 57.8 58.0 58.1 58.2 49.8

North Carolina

57.7 58.3 58.8 58.9 59.1 50.4

North Dakota

69.4 68.9 69.1 67.8 67.7 62.5

Ohio

59.4 59.7 59.8 59.9 60.1 53.5

Oklahoma

59.1 58.3 58.5 59.2 58.8 52.3

Oregon

57.9 59.4 60.3 59.8 59.4 52.9

Pennsylvania

59.4 59.7 59.8 59.9 60.2 54.6

Rhode Island

61.0 61.1 61.6 61.8 61.9 50.5

South Carolina

55.9 56.2 56.1 56.4 56.7 51.5

South Dakota

67.3 67.2 66.8 66.8 66.7 62.1

Tennessee

56.0 57.0 58.1 58.8 59.9 53.9

Texas

61.0 60.9 61.0 61.5 61.6 52.8

Utah

65.8 66.2 66.7 66.3 66.5 61.5

Vermont

64.7 64.8 64.9 65.2 64.7 57.7

Virginia

62.1 62.1 63.0 63.4 64.0 58.4

Washington

59.7 60.2 60.8 61.2 62.0 55.0

West Virginia

49.2 49.8 50.4 51.0 52.2 47.2

Wisconsin

64.8 65.7 66.1 65.8 64.8 58.6

Wyoming

64.7 63.2 62.8 62.5 62.7 59.5

In May 2020, other states with employment-population ratios of less than 50.0 percent included Hawaii, Michigan, Florida, Mississippi, West Virginia, California, Louisiana, New York, and New Mexico. Nebraska had the highest employment–population ratio in May 2020, at 67.1 percent, down from 67.7 percent in May 2019. Other states with high employment–population ratios were North Dakota (62.5 percent), and South Dakota and Minnesota (62.1 percent each).

In addition to Nevada, 7 other states experienced a decrease in their employment–population ratio of at least 10.0-percentage points from May 2019 to May 2020. These included Hawaii (−14.0 percentage points), Massachusetts (−13.3 percentage points), Michigan (−12.3 percentage points), New Hampshire (−12.2 percentage points), Rhode Island (−11.4 percentage points), and Florida and California (−10.1 percentage points each).

These data are from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent month are preliminary. Also, see more information on statewide employment–population ratios and more charts and maps on state employment.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employment–population ratio less than 50.0 percent for 10 states in May 2020 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2020/employment-population-ratio-less-than-50-point-0-percent-for-10-states-in-may-2020.htm (visited October 31, 2024).

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