Economist Dan Mitchell looked at these figures and concluded that there’s “a clear relationship between joblessness and the degree to which states pursue big-government policies.” In particular, the unemployment rates different states are experiencing are strongly correlated with the harshness and length of the pandemic lockdowns their state governments imposed. With a few exceptions, Republican governors rolled back restrictions on the economy much faster than their Democratic counterparts. This is clearly one of the major drivers behind the differing unemployment rates. In fact, the Wall Street Journal notes that the only Democratic-controlled state in the 10 states with the best unemployment rates is Wisconsin, where the state Supreme Court forcibly nullified the governor’s overzealous lockdown measures. This trend in lockdown-state-versus-free-state unemployment can be traced back through February.