Blue states have suffered the worst unemployment in the wake of the pandemic, a Labor Department report released on Friday shows.
The report revealed that the jobless rate in several blue states is significantly higher than the national unemployment rate of 8.4% in August, illustrating that they have borne the brunt of the disruptions to business.
For example, California had a jobless rate of 11.4%. New York and New Jersey, the two states hit hardest by the pandemic and associated government restrictions, had unemployment rates of 12.5% and 10.9%, respectively.
Meanwhile, red states Texas, Georgia, and Montana had lower jobless rates of 6.8%, 5.6%, and 5.6%, respectively.
Overall, blue states, defined as those classified as likely to be won by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, experienced a 6.7 average percentage-point increase in joblessness from February to August, according to Indeed.com analysis. The number for red states is less than half that, at 3.2%.
