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Employment-Population Ratio by state

Percent. Every state colored on one scale across all years, joined to the map by FIPS code.

2024
20102024
Texas: 62.1%California: 60.0%Kentucky: 56.9%Georgia: 60.9%Wisconsin: 63.3%Oregon: 59.8%Missouri: 61.0%Virginia: 61.1%Tennessee: 60.3%Louisiana: 56.4%New York: 59.5%Idaho: 60.6%Florida: 57.7%Illinois: 61.9%Montana: 61.0%Minnesota: 65.5%Maryland: 64.2%Iowa: 64.3%District of Columbia: 66.6%Ohio: 60.8%Nebraska: 65.9%Washington: 60.9%South Dakota: 65.5%Oklahoma: 58.0%Wyoming: 61.8%West Virginia: 52.2%Indiana: 61.5%Massachusetts: 64.4%Nevada: 60.0%North Dakota: 65.8%Arkansas: 56.5%Mississippi: 55.7%Colorado: 64.9%North Carolina: 59.8%Utah: 66.9%Hawaii: 57.9%New Mexico: 54.8%Kansas: 63.3%Rhode Island: 61.9%Michigan: 58.8%Alaska: 58.4%Delaware: 58.9%Alabama: 56.4%South Carolina: 57.6%Maine: 60.0%New Jersey: 63.1%Pennsylvania: 60.3%New Hampshire: 64.4%Arizona: 58.2%Connecticut: 62.6%Vermont: 63.0%6260576163606161605660615862616664646166616658625262646066575665606758556359585658606058
48.8%
68.2%

The color scale is fixed across all years, so a state changing shade as you move the slider is a real change in the value.

2024 · Highest: Utah 66.9% · Lowest: West Virginia 52.2%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 1-year · S2301_C03_001E · table · 2010 to 2024

Reading it. The employed as a share of all working-age people, so it falls when people leave the workforce, which the unemployment rate does not capture.

Comparing states is harder than it looks. A dollar buys more in some states than others, and survey estimates carry a margin of error. Read the map for the pattern, not for a precise ranking.