States Whose Unemployment Claims Are Increasing the Most

Source: WalletHub

The U.S. is making significant progress in the fight against COVID-19 with the distribution of the vaccine and boosters, but the impact on the job market has lagged behind, with new unemployment claims increasing week-over-week on January 3. There are currently 6.3 million Americans unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in total, and it’s important to look at some key stats for the latest week to get the full picture:

• There were 230,000 new unemployment claims nationwide, which is a lot fewer than the 6.1 million during the peak of the pandemic (a 96% reduction).
• While there was an increase in weekly claims nationally, 49 states (including Kansas, Virginia, and New Mexico) had unemployment claims last week that were better than the same week last year.
• Every state had unemployment claims last week that were higher than before the pandemic except for Georgia, Arkansas, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Alabama, Delaware, New York, Virginia, Maine, Maryland, Connecticut, and Oklahoma.

To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the biggest increases in unemployment claims due to COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on changes in unemployment claims for several key benchmark weeks. For the full report click here.