State Employment Population Ratios

States with the highest employment population ratios tend to be Republican states. The following is a ranking of states by employment population ratio, current as of December 2014, their Democratic advantage according to Gallup, Representatives/Senators in Congress by party, party breakdown in the state legislature, and how they voted in the 2012 presidential election. Ultimately 14 of the 20 states with lowest unemployment rates had Republican advantages according to Gallup polling.

List of States by Employment-Population Ratio

Determination of whether a state is Republican or Democrat is based solely on the Gallup data (Democrat Advantage); the state's ratios for Congress, the state legislature, and 2012 presidential election results are merely provided for informational purposes. For example, Colorado, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Virginia all voted for Obama in 2012 but Gallup polling reveals they are primarily Republican, and thus they are labeled Republican here, particularly since their legislative elections reveal them to be Republican. On the other hand Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have elected more Republicans at both the state and federal levels than Democrats, but are labeled as Democrat states because Gallup polling shows they have Democrat Advantages. States which could be classified as definite swing states include Colorado, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

RANK	STATE	RATE	PARTY	DEM. ADV.	CONGRESS	STATE LEG.	ROMNEY VOTE	OBAMA VOTE
1	North Dakota	69.6%	Republican	-25%	2/3 R	104/143 R	59%	39%
2	Nebraska	68.8%	Republican	-16%	4/5 R	NP	61%	38%
3	Iowa	67.5%	Republican	-2%	5/6 R	80/149 R	46%	52%
4	Minnesota	67.4%	Democrat	6%	7/10 D	101/201 D	45%	53%
5	South Dakota	67.2%	Republican	-17%	3/3 R	84/103 R	58%	40%
6	New Hampshire	66.3%	Republican	-4%	2/4 R	253/424 R	46%	52%
7	Vermont	65.5%	Democrat	19%	3/3 D	118/180 D	31%	67%
8T	Utah	65.3%	Republican	-32%	6/6 R	85/104 R	73%	25%
8T	Wyoming	65.3%	Republican	-40%	3/3 R	77/90 R	69%	28%
10	Kansas	65.2%	Republican	-21%	6/6 R	130/165 R	60%	38%
11T	Colorado	65.0%	Republican	-4%	5/9 R	50/100 R	47%	51%
11T	Wisconsin	65.0%	Democrat	1%	6/10 R	80/130 R	46%	53%
13	Alaska	63.5%	Republican	-20%	3/3 R	37/60	55%	41%
14	Virginia	62.5%	Republican	-1%	8/13 R	89/140 R	48%	51%
15	Maryland	62.2%	Democrat	20%	9/10 D	123/188 D	37%	62%
16T	Connecticut	61.9%	Democrat	16%	7/7 D	108/187 D	40%	58%
16T	Texas	61.9%	Republican	-4%	27/38 R	118/181 R	57%	41%
18	Massachusetts	61.7%	Democrat	21%	11/11 D	159/200 D	38%	61%
19T	Missouri	61.4%	Republican	-3%	7/10 R	142/196 R	54%	44%
19T	Montana	61.4%	Republican	-13%	1/2 R	88/150 R	55%	42%
21	Illinois	60.9%	Democrat	17%	11/20 D	110/177 D	41%	57%
22	Maine	60.8%	Democrat	6%	2/4 D	98/186 D	41%	56%
23T	Idaho	60.4%	Republican	-24%	4/4 R	84/105 R	65%	33%
23T	Rhode Island	60.4%	Democrat	23%	4/4 D	97/113 D	36%	63%
25	New Jersey	60.3%	Democrat	16%	8/14 D	72/120	41%	58%
26	Indiana	60.0%	Republican	-4%	8/11 R	111/150	54%	44%
27	Ohio	59.8%	Democrat	0%	13/18 R	83/132 R	48%	50%
28T	Hawaii	59.5%	Democrat	24%	4/4 D	67/76 D	28%	71%
28T	Washington	59.5%	Democrat	7%	8/12 D	75/147 D	42%	56%
30	Pennsylvania	59.1%	Democrat	3%	14/20 R	149/253 R	47%	52%
31T	California	58.1%	Democrat	18%	41/55 D	78/120 D	38%	59%
31T	Oklahoma	58.1%	Republican	-13%	7/7 R	112/149 R	67%	33%
33T	Delaware	57.9%	Democrat	17%	3/3 D	37/62 D	40%	59%
33T	Nevada	57.9%	Democrat	3%	4/6 R	38/63 R	46%	52%
35	Oregon	57.7%	Democrat	7%	6/7 D	53/90 D	43%	54%
36	Georgia	57.6%	Republican	-3%	12/16 R	155/234 R	53%	45%
37	Louisiana	57.4%	Republican	-2%	7/8 R	85/144	58%	41%
38	Florida	56.9%	Democrat	5%	18/29 R	103/155 R	49%	50%
39	New York	56.9%	Democrat	25%	20/28 D	137/213	36%	63%
40	North Carolina	56.5%	Republican	-1%	12/15 R	109/170 R	51%	48%
41	Michigan	56.4%	Democrat	9%	9/16 R	90/148 R	45%	54%
42	Arizona	55.9%	Republican	-1%	7/11 R	53/90 R	54%	44%
43T	Kentucky	54.6%	Democrat	2%	7/8 R	72/135	61%	38%
43T	South Carolina	54.6%	Republican	-10%	8/9 R	103/167 R	55%	44%
43T	Tennessee	54.6%	Republican	-7%	9/11 R	100/132 R	59%	39%
46	New Mexico	54.4%	Democrat	11%	4/5 D	58/112 D	43%	53%
47	Arkansas	54.3%	Republican	-4%	6/6 R	87/134 R	61%	37%
48	Alabama	52.1%	Republican	-11%	8/9 R	98/129 R	61%	38%
49	Mississippi	50.7%	Republican	-6%	5/6 R	98/174 R	56%	44%
50	West Virginia	49.6%	Democrat	1%	4/5 R	82/134	62%	36%

Notes

• Nebraska's state legislature is Nonpartisan/Unicameral and thus party breakdown cannot be provided, this is indicated by a value of "NP."
• Since Independents overwhelmingly caucus as Democrats, they were classified as Democrats when counting Congress/State Legislature ratios. The only state really affected by this was Vermont which had 11 Independents at the state level and 1 at the federal level.
• A "T" at the end of a rank indicates a tie between states for that rank.

Analysis

Gallup polling generally lines up with how states voted for president in 2012. While states have increasingly become more Republican since 2012, the Gallup polling largely represents the ideology which has governed state employment in recent years, and a state's identity is generally clear. There are two states which should arguably be identified as Republican despite Gallup polling indicating they are narrowly Democrat, Kentucky and West Virginia. According to Gallup they narrowly polled Democrat, with 2% and 1% Democrat advantages respectively, yet both have elected more Republicans to both the state and federal legislature, and voted for Romney in 2012.

I was personally very surprised by how much these rankings differ from state unemployment rate rankings. Some states like Alaska, Hawaii, and California had ranking differences greater than 20. As a result, I am very skeptical of the methodology used in acquiring this state-specific data because it differs so much from the other rankings I have seen.