The U.S. is making significant progress in the fight against COVID-19 with the distribution of the vaccine and boosters, but the impact on the job market has lagged behind, with new unemployment claims increasing week-over-week on April 25. There are currently 6 million Americans unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in total, and it’s important to look at some key stats for the latest week to get the full picture:
- There were 200,000 new unemployment claims nationwide, which is a lot fewer than the 6.1 million during the peak of the pandemic (a 97% reduction).
- While there was an increase in weekly claims nationally, every state except New Hampshire had unemployment claims last week that were better than the same week last year.
- 15 states had unemployment claims last week that were higher than before the pandemic: Virginia, Minnesota, California, Missouri, Texas, Ohio, Alaska, Colorado, New York, Utah, District of Columbia, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, and Indiana.
To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the biggest increases in unemployment claims due to COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on changes in unemployment claims for several key benchmark weeks.
New York is having a somewhat successful recovery from new unemployment claims, with last week’s claims lower than at the start of 2020, according to WalletHub’s updated rankings for the States Whose Unemployment Claims Are Increasing the Most:
Key Stats:
- Weekly unemployment claims in New York increased by 25.39% compared to the same week in 2019. This was the 7th biggest increase in the U.S.
- Weekly unemployment claims in New York decreased by 48.05% compared to the start of 2020. This was the 24th smallest decrease in the U.S.
- Weekly unemployment claims in New York decreased by 26.10% compared to the same week last year. This was the 4th smallest decrease in the U.S.