States with the Biggest Increases in Unemployment Due to COVID-19

From Wallet Hub, May 7, 2020

As the U.S. economy has slowed to a crawl due to COVID-19, countless businesses have shut their doors in accordance with the resulting social distancing policies. Consequently, many businesses have furloughed or laid off employees, and 33.5 million Americans have found themselves temporarily or permanently out of a job since the week of March 16. Though more and more states are beginning to relax certain social distancing restrictions or are planning to soon, a full reopening of the economy still seems far off. Americans should expect to see incremental change, as recommended by the White House, rather than a sudden jump back to normalcy.

While Americans have started to receive their government stimulus payments, those who are jobless will likely still struggle. However, not all states have experienced the same levels of unemployment due to the pandemic. To identify which states’ workforces have been hurt most by COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on increases in unemployment claims. They used this data to rank the most impacted states in both the latest week for which we have data (April 27) and overall since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis (March 16)….

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Hawaii

• 24 -- Most Affected Last Week
• 23 -- Most Affected Since Start of COVID-19 Crisis
• 1338.57% -- Increase in Unemployment Claims (2020 vs 2019)*
• 782.85% -- Increase in Unemployment Claims (April vs January 2020)**
• 2597.86% -- Increase in Unemployment Claims (April vs Start of COVID-19 Crisis)***

*Refers to the increase in the number of unemployment insurance initial claims in the week of April 27, 2020 compared to the week of April 29, 2019.

**Refers to the increase in the number of unemployment insurance initial claims in the week of April 27, 2020 compared to the week of January 1, 2020.

***Refers to the increase in the Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims between the weeks of March 16, 2020 to April 27, 2020 compared to the weeks of March 18, 2019 to April 29, 2019.