Only three other states’ unemployment claims recovering slower than CA’s
WalletHub recently analyzed all fifty states and the District of Columbia to determine fastest changes in number of local unemployment claims. California stood at #48, boasting one of our nation’s smallest decreases when compared to the beginning of 2020 (consistent with noticeable Bay Area job losses during COVID-19’s remote labor boom). Considering burdensome costs of living for all but the most wealthy, is it surprising that Californians are still, post-COVID, struggling with unemployment?
The U.S. is making significant progress in the fight against COVID-19 with the distribution of the vaccine and boosters, and this has been reflected in the job market, as new unemployment claims decreased week-over-week on June 6. There are currently 6 million Americans unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in total, though, and it’s important to look at some key stats for the latest week to get the full picture:
There were 229,000 new unemployment claims nationwide, which is a lot fewer than the 6.1 million during the peak of the pandemic (a 96% reduction).
The good news is that every state except South Carolina had unemployment claims last week that were better than the same week last year.
Every state had unemployment claims last week that were lower than before the pandemic except for Wisconsin, North Dakota, Illinois, Georgia, California, Michigan, Colorado, Utah, Indiana, and Ohio.
To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the quickest recovery from COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on changes in unemployment claims for several key benchmark weeks.
| State | Recovered Most Since Last Week | Recovered Most Since Start of |
|---|---|---|
This article originally appeared on WalletHub. Read the whole thing here.
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