Despite the fact that the U.S. is still struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, new unemployment claims decreased week-over-week on August 17, and were still 85% below the peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. To help add some context to these statistics, WalletHub just released updated rankings for the States Whose Weekly Unemployment Claims Are Recovering the Quickest, along with accompanying videos and audio files.
To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the quickest recovery from COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three metrics based on changes in unemployment claims. Below, you can see highlights from the report, along with a WalletHub Q&A. To see the states most recovered since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.
Change in Texas Weekly Unemployment Claims (1=Quickest Recovery, 25=Avg.):
- 314.60% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Last Year)
- 52,318 the week of August 17, 2020 vs 12,619 the week of August 19, 2019
- 25th quickest recovery in the U.S.
- 323.05% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Start of 2020)
- 52,318 the week of August 17, 2020 vs 12,367 the week of January 1, 2020
- 9th slowest recovery in the U.S.
- 1,077.31% Change in Unemployment Claims (Since Start of COVID-19 Crisis vs Last Year)
- 3,296,424 between the week of March 16, 2020 and the week of August 17, 2020 vs 305,986 between the week of March 18, 2019 and the week of August 19, 2019
- 23rd quickest recovery in the U.S.
