Republican leaders preside over all nine of the states that experienced the smallest unemployment levels last year. Meanwhile, Democratic governors were found to be presiding over the ten states that suffered the highest levels of unemployment last year.

The 2022 annual average unemployment numbers for each of the states were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this week.

The nine states that experienced the lowest unemployment levels last year were:

The ten states that experienced the highest unemployment rates last were:

On Tuesday night, Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell made an attempt to persuade the American people of the advantages of having the GOP in power of state governments.

At an address at the Republican National Convention, McDonnell claimed states with Republican governors had a lower rate of unemployment than those states with Democratic governors.

He also said the typical rate of unemployment is one full percent lower in states with Republican governors than in states with Democratic governors. During another point in his speech, the Virginia governor noted this affects a lot of things.

He went on to point out that the states which have the lowest unemployment rates are all led by Republican governors. Republican governors are in place in 12 of the 15 states that made the list of the ones which are doing well economically and are better for doing business in.

A cursory look at the party allegiance of the governors reveals that there are Republican governors in 29 states, Democratic governors in 20 states, and an Independent governor in one state.

Based on provisional, seasonally updated statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for July 2012, 7.84% of the civilian workforce in the 29 states with Republican governors was jobless (6,680,400 out of 85,155,600 people).

8.77% of the 20 states with Democratic governors had unemployment, based on the identical data set (6,032,500 out of 68,792,500). There was an 8.3% unemployment rate nationwide.

Despite being close, the difference between 7.84% and 8.77% is not a whole point.

It’s also important to note that the Republican Party has only held the office of governor for the same or less than 19 months in 11 of the states where they are in power.