State Economies Hit Hardest by COVID-19

Vermont is one of only 10 states to report an economic decline of over 4% between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020. The state’s transportation and warehousing, educational services, accommodation and food services, and arts, entertainment, and recreation industries all reported double digit declines — offsetting strong growth in the management sector.

Despite a near nation-leading economic contraction, Vermont has one of the strongest job markets in the country. Just 3.1% of the state’s labor force was unemployed as of November 2020, less than half the comparable national unemployment rate of 6.7%.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a larger economic toll on Tennessee’s economy than on that of most other states. Between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020, Tennessee’s economic output fell by 4.3% — well above the 2.8% national economic contraction over the same period.

In the past year, manufacturing, Tennessee’s largest industry, shrank by 1.4% — a larger than average decline for the industry. Additionally, the state’s arts, entertainment, and recreation sector contracted by 59% — a larger decline than in every other state except New York and New Hampshire.

Michigan reported a 5.6% contraction in manufacturing — its largest sector — between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020. The decline has had a devastating effect on the overall state economy, which over the same period contracted by 4.4%. The downward economic spiral has triggered an unemployment crisis in Michigan. The state has shed over 320,000 jobs in the last year, and the November 2020 jobless rate was 6.9% — well above the 3.9% jobless rate from one year earlier.

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction — an industry that was hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as demand for fuels plummeted during global lockdowns — is the largest industry in Alaska. Over the past year, the state’s resource extraction sector contracted by 9.1%. A handful of other industries, including arts, entertainment, and recreation, contracted by even more, all contributing to a near 5% decline in GDP between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020.

Unemployment is often relatively high in Alaska, and the pandemic has only added to pressures on the job market. As of November, 8.1% of the state’s labor force was out of work, well above the comparable 6.7% national jobless rate and the state’s unemployment rate one year ago of 6.1%.

Louisiana is one of six states in which the GDP in Q3 2020 was at least 5% lower than it was a year earlier. Amid the pandemic, many hospitals and other care providers suspended elective or nonemergency surgeries and procedures. While the nationwide health care GDP declined by 3.7%, no state health care sector shrank more than that of Louisiana, at 15.4%.

Louisiana’s total employment dropped by 3.1% from September 2019 to September 2020, one of the smaller decreases. Yet the state has still had one of the higher unemployment rates each month throughout the pandemic. Louisiana had the third highest unemployment rate of any state in February 2020, just before the pandemic hit, at 5.2%.