States Where Unemployment Claims Are Decreasing the Most

Wallet Hub, Aug 4, 2022

The U.S. has reduced unemployment from record highs during the COVID-19 pandemic to near record lows. Now, however, 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, despite new unemployment claims increasing slightly week-over-week on July 25. There are currently 5.9 million Americans unemployed in total, though, 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 Maryland, Colorado, California, Minnesota, Maine, Oregon, Indiana, Alaska, Virginia, Vermont, North Carolina, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Nevada, Idaho, Iowa, North Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Connecticut, and the District of Columbia.

Surprisingly, six states (including Connecticut, West Virginia, and South Carolina) had unemployment claims last week that were worse than the same week last year.

The following states had unemployment claims last week that were lower than in the same week pre-pandemic (2019): New Hampshire, Illinois, Delaware, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Maine, Washington, Kansas, Maryland, Arizona, Kentucky, South Dakota, Vermont, Montana, New Jersey, Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, and the District of Columbia.

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. We also considered the number of claims per 100,000 people in the labor force.

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