With the U.S. experiencing an extremely high number of initial unemployment claims, WalletHub today released updated rankings for the States with the Biggest Increases in Unemployment Due to Coronavirus.
To identify which states have experienced the largest unemployment increases, the website compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two key metrics. These metrics compare initial unemployment claim increases for the week of March 30, 2020 to both the same week in 2019 and the first week of 2020.
North Carolina was ranked as the 7th worst state and South Carolina was ranked as the 33rd worst state.
States with the Biggest Increases in Unemployment Due to Coronavirus
| Overall Rank | State | Increase in Unemployment Claims (2020 vs. 2019)* | Increase in Unemployment Claims (April vs. January 2020)** |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisiana | 6118.90% | 6111.40% |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 7186.52% | 5148.41% |
| 3 | Virginia | 6747.65% | 4597.55% |
| 4 | Georgia | 8262.24% | 2175.35% |
| 5 | Mississippi | 4800.32% | 3847.71% |
| 6 | Michigan | 5659.41% | 2813.94% |
| 7 | North Carolina | 4282.70% | 3821.69% |
| 8 | Nevada | 3877.34% | 3427.61% |
| 9 | North Dakota | 5816.54% | 1825.00% |
| 10 | Indiana | 4298.91% | 2913.96% |
| 11 | South Dakota | 5435.66% | 1888.94% |
| 12 | Arizona | 2528.53% | 4120.59% |
| 13 | Hawaii | 4030.89% | 2808.60% |
| 14 | Maryland | 4227.48% | 2597.34% |
| 15 | Nebraska | 4448.05% | 2337.49% |
| 16 | District of Columbia | 3406.38% | 3100.21% |
| 17 | Tennessee | 2589.69% | 3665.92% |
| 18 | Florida | 2553.62% | 3578.76% |
| 19 | New Mexico | 2944.16% | 3229.91% |
| 20 | Kentucky | 4122.60% | 2163.48% |
| 21 | Kansas | 3566.62% | 2364.39% |
| 22 | Delaware | 3913.40% | 2055.77% |
| 23 | Maine | 4044.93% | 1741.91% |
| 24 | Alabama | 3552.96% | 2109.81% |
| 25 | Ohio | 3629.53% | 1983.67% |
| 26 | Vermont | 3016.76% | 2278.82% |
| 27 | Rhode Island | 4123.47% | 1332.81% |
| 28 | Utah | 3123.78% | 2078.92% |
| 29 | California | 2454.59% | 2420.29% |
| 30 | Arkansas | 2610.76% | 2267.70% |
| 31 | Iowa | 3682.81% | 1368.25% |
| 32 | Texas | 2296.94% | 2437.66% |
| 33 | South Carolina | 3931.20% | 1037.97% |
| 34 | Minnesota | 3443.34% | 1423.64% |
| 35 | Massachusetts | 3149.12% | 1374.87% |
| 36 | Washington | 2707.22% | 1664.04% |
| 37 | Colorado | 2290.65% | 1771.41% |
| 38 | Oklahoma | 2425.89% | 1637.14% |
| 39 | Idaho | 3173.94% | 915.29% |
| 40 | New Jersey | 2675.36% | 1295.74% |
| 41 | Missouri | 3022.36% | 1002.48% |
| 42 | Illinois | 2163.86% | 1605.92% |
| 43 | Montana | 2607.85% | 1186.88% |
| 44 | Pennsylvania | 2449.82% | 939.34% |
| 45 | New York | 2639.40% | 669.85% |
| 46 | Alaska | 1625.03% | 1466.77% |
| 47 | West Virginia | 1986.28% | 804.41% |
| 48 | Wisconsin | 1847.15% | 715.12% |
| 49 | Wyoming | 1324.42% | 640.18% |
| 50 | Oregon | 1167.82% | 743.70% |
| 51 | Connecticut | 1294.74% | 325.60% |
Increase in North Carolina Unemployment Due to Coronavirus (1=Worst, 25=Avg.):
- 4282.70% increase in the Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims – from 3,139 the week of April 1, 2019 to 137,573 the week of March 30, 2020. 11th highest increase in the U.S.
- 3821.69% increase in the Number of Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims – from 3,508 in the first week of the year to 137,573 the week of March 30, 2020. 6th highest increase in the U.S.
