Introduction
A higher rate of unemployment, which refers to the percentage of individuals who make up the labor force who are currently unemployed, can have negative ripple effects on the economy — like for example, those unemployed being able to spend less money in general, or may also be more reliant on social benefit programs such as food stamps and unemployment benefits. As such, reducing unemployment is a key policy goal for all 50 states, especially in the challenging times we now face.
Congress has been prompt to react whenever the unemployment rate hikes to a record level. When the Great Recession triggered the rate to rise to nearly 10%, federal lawmakers in 2009 passed an act that provided financial aid packages to those unemployed and faltering businesses and created tens of thousands of jobs by investing in infrastructures. Then in 2021, a similar act was implemented to accelerate the process of recovery from a year-long economic downturn stemmed by the COVID-19 pandemic — which had once caused the unemployment rate to hit the highest level since the Great Depression.
Surprisingly, a 2022 Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans aren’t worried about not finding a quality job if they were to be laid-off from their current jobs, showing that despite the uncertain times that Covid has created, the feeling of job security remains quite high.
Learn for yourself how states compare to one another in terms of their unemployment rate by surveying the data in the charts.
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