Originally published by WalletHub.
The U.S. reduced unemployment to record lows earlier this year, though it has risen slightly in recent months even as inflation has cooled. For the time being, the job market is still in good shape, as new unemployment claims decreased by 3% week-over-week on July 17. There are currently 6 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 Colorado and Vermont.
- Every state had unemployment claims last week that were lower than in the same week pre-pandemic (2019) except for West Virginia, Hawaii, Tennessee, Nebraska, Idaho, California, Nevada, Texas, Connecticut, Georgia, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Indiana, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Vermont, and Ohio.
- Surprisingly, 29 states – including Vermont, Ohio, and Massachusetts – had unemployment claims last week that were worse than the same week last year.
To identify where unemployment claims are decreasing the most, 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.
