Due to the progress the U.S. is making in the fight against COVID-19, new unemployment claims decreased week-over-week on March 15, and were 90% 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 Unemployment Claims Are Recovering the Quickest.
To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the quickest recovery from COVID-19, the site compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three metrics based on changes in unemployment claims.
For this past week, South Carolina ranked 5th and North Carolina ranked 18th. For the states that recovered most since the start of the pandemic, North Carolina ranked 3rd overall and South Carolina ranked 10th.
States Whose Unemployment Claims Are Recovering the Quickest
| State | Recovered Most Since Last Week | Recovered Most Since Start of COVID-19 Crisis |
|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | 1 | 30 |
| New Jersey | 2 | 6 |
| South Dakota | 3 | 22 |
| Pennsylvania | 4 | 2 |
| South Carolina | 5 | 10 |
| Arizona | 6 | 23 |
| Vermont | 7 | 28 |
| New Hampshire | 8 | 1 |
| Kansas | 9 | 12 |
| Illinois | 10 | 14 |
| Missouri | 11 | 24 |
| Washington | 12 | 8 |
| Michigan | 13 | 7 |
| Oregon | 14 | 35 |
| Nebraska | 15 | 11 |
| Wisconsin | 16 | 33 |
| Minnesota | 17 | 5 |
| North Carolina | 18 | 3 |
| Maine | 19 | 4 |
| Wyoming | 20 | 31 |
| Iowa | 21 | 20 |
| Montana | 22 | 18 |
| North Dakota | 23 | 16 |
| Delaware | 24 | 17 |
| Utah | 25 | 21 |
| Florida | 26 | 26 |
| New Mexico | 27 | 19 |
| Tennessee | 28 | 27 |
| Idaho | 29 | 37 |
| California | 30 | 43 |
| Hawaii | 31 | 42 |
| Connecticut | 32 | 40 |
| New York | 33 | 45 |
| Maryland | 34 | 36 |
| Kentucky | 35 | 25 |
| Alaska | 36 | 41 |
| Rhode Island | 37 | 13 |
| District of Columbia | 38 | 15 |
| Louisiana | 39 | 9 |
| Oklahoma | 40 | 38 |
| Mississippi | 41 | 48 |
| Indiana | 42 | 34 |
| Massachusetts | 43 | 29 |
| Texas | 44 | 44 |
| Alabama | 45 | 49 |
| Georgia | 46 | 51 |
| West Virginia | 47 | 50 |
| Colorado | 48 | 47 |
| Nevada | 49 | 32 |
| Ohio | 50 | 39 |
| Virginia | 51 | 46 |
Rank 1 = Most Recovered