A look at the state-by-state breakdown for unemployment stats reveals that the bottom-performing eleven states (counting D.C. as a state) are all run by Democrats and all are continuing the enhanced federal benefit for the jobless, except Louisiana, which ended them July 31. They are:
Louisiana 6.9 percent
Pennsylvania 6.9
D.C. 7.0
Illinois 7.2
New Jersey 7.3
California 7.7
Hawaii 7.7
New York 7.7
Nevada 7.8
Connecticut 7.9
New Mexico 7.9
So which states have the lowest unemployment rate? The top-ten best performers are these:
Nebraska 2.5 percent
Utah 2.7
New Hampshire 2.9
South Dakota 2.9
Idaho 3.0
Vermont 3.1
Alabama 3.3
Kansas 3.7
Montana 3.7
Oklahoma 3.7
All of these states have Republican governors except Kansas (although Vermont’s governor Phil Scott is a liberal Republican). And all of them opted out early of the additional federal employment benefit except Kansas and Vermont.
I’m looking for a good empirical measurement of the degree to which each state was locked down. Any guesses as to whether the most draconian lockdowns are associated with the greatest loss of jobs?