According to a recent study, states that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential election lost more than twice the number of jobs during the pandemic on average than states who voted for Donald Trump.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, states that voted for Biden on average lost 6.2 percent of jobs, while states that voted for Trump only lost 2.5 percent of jobs.
The Daily Mail analysis cites one of the main reasons for the difference in job loss rates could be the varying severity of state lockdown restrictions. “Between February and December of last year, states that went for Biden saw the total number of people working drop an average of 6.2 percent, versus a 2.5 percent decline in those voting for the Republican,” the report said, referencing federal jobs data.
The 13 states that saw the lowest decline in employment are strongly Republican-leaning. The chart is led by Alaska and Utah. According to the report, they saw an increase in jobs by 0.7 and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Of the states with the highest decline in jobs during the pandemic, 13 out of 14 voted for Biden. Nevada and Hawaii led this group. They decreased employment by a whopping 10.2 and 9.3 percent, respectively.
Another report from Reason explains why the difference in jobs lost is not because of the pandemic itself. The report points to states like Hawaii, which “is not just the job-loss leader; it’s also the state with the least mortality from the pandemic,” The report added, “New York is third in job loss, second in death rate.”
The report shows the job losses are from the difference in how the states handled the “restrictions on businesses and school closures.”
“Blue-state governors in California and New York and Michigan have been far more strict about shutting down economic and physical activity than their red-state counterparts in Florida, South Dakota, and Texas,” the report said. “The comparative death tolls are roughly the same (California tracks with Florida, New York with South Dakota, and Michigan with Texas); the economic performances are anything but.”
One other possibility from the report shows Trump voters tend to be more spread out in rural areas, in addition to having a “different employment mix including more industries such as farming and mineral exploration, which continued apace through the pandemic.”
The Daily Mail based their analysis on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the employed civilian labor force in each state from February to December in 2020. In the states with a split electoral college, Daily Mail put the data from the state under the candidate who garnered the majority of electoral college votes there.
