Submitted by WalletHub.com
According to the personal finance website WalletHub, the U.S. has reduced unemployment from record highs during the COVID-19 pandemic to near record lows. Now, however, the website warns, high inflation and the looming threat of a recession could cause unemployment claims to spike once more.
For the time being, the job market is still in good shape with new unemployment claims decreasing by 7.3% week-over-week. Currently 5.7 million Americans are unemployed, and it’s important to look at some key stats for the latest week to get the full picture:
Every state had unemployment claims last week that were lower than in the previous week except for Oregon, Louisiana, New Mexico, California, Maryland, Rhode Island, Alaska, Idaho, Arkansas, Nevada, and Kentucky.
Virginia’s unemployment claims fell by 13.64 percent in the most recent week, the fifth best decrease in the country.
Every state had unemployment claims last week that were lower than in the same week pre-pandemic (2019) except for Nevada, New York, Indiana, California, Colorado, Utah, Rhode Island, and Ohio.
Surprisingly, 10 states – including Georgia, South Carolina and Colorado – had unemployment claims last week that were worse than the same week last year.
To identify where unemployment claims are decreasing the most even amid costly inflation, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on changes in unemployment claims for several key benchmark weeks. The website also considered the number of claims per 100,000 people in the labor force.
According to WalletHub’s survey, the ten places where unemployment rates decreased the most in order from most to least were 1. Tennessee 2. New Hampshire 3. New Jersey 4. District of Columbia 5. Virginia 6. Delaware 7. Oklahoma 8. Kansas 9. Alabama 10. Missouri
On the other hand, the ten states where unemployment rates decreased the least according to WalletHub were 42. Arkansas 43. Ohio 44. Oregon 45. Alaska 46. Colorado 47. Idaho 48. Nevada 49. California 50. Rhode Island 51. Kentucky.
In making their determinations, WalletHub used the following metrics to rank the states: 1) Change in Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims in Latest Week vs. Previous Week 2) Change in Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims in Latest Week vs. Same Week 3) Change in Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims in Latest Week vs. Same Week of 2022 4) Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims per 100,000 People in the Labor Force.