With the U.S. experiencing an extremely high number of initial unemployment claims, WalletHub has released updated rankings for the states with the biggest increases in unemployment due to the coronavirus.
To identify which states have experienced the largest unemployment increases, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two key metrics. These metrics compare initial unemployment claim increases for the week of March 30, 2020, to both the same week in 2019 and the first week of 2020. In both instances, Virginia had the third highest rate of increase in unemployment insurance initial claims in the country.
The state’s percentage of increase was an astounding 6747.65 percent over a year ago, from 2,187 the week of April 1, 2019, to 149,758 the week of March 30, 2020.
Virginia’s percentage of increase was an equally alarming 4597.55 percent in the number of unemployment claims from the start of the year. The increase was from 3,188 at the start of 2010 to 149,758 the week of March 30, 2020.
The top ten states with the highest percentage of increase in unemployment insurance claims were 1. Louisiana 2. New Hampshire 3. Virginia 4. Georgia 5. Mississippi 6. Michigan 7. North Carolina 8. Nevada 9. North Dakota 10. Indiana.
