For the study, researchers examined initial unemployment claims for the week of Oct. 25, 2021 for each state. That data was compared to the number of unemployment claims in 2019, the start of 2020 and the week of Oct. 25 in 2020. Researchers also compared initial unemployment claims at the start of the pandemic with the same period this year.
Some insights into the rankings and scores:
- There are approximately 7.7 million Americans unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unemployment claims have declined 96 percent since the pandemic started.
- Oregon and Washington, D.C., have unemployment claims in the week of Oct. 25, 2021, that were worse than the same period in 2020.
- Arkansas, Virginia and North Dakota had the smallest increases in unemployment claims in the week of Oct. 25, 2021, than in the same period in 2019. Washington, D.C., Kentucky and Tennessee had the largest increase in unemployment claims during the same time frame.
- Unemployment claims in 23 states were lower during the week of Oct. 25, 2021, than they were before the start of the pandemic.
Here are the rankings for each state and Washington, D.C.
- Florida
- New Hampshire
- South Carolina
- Kansas
- South Dakota
- North Carolina
- Georgia
- Washington
- Arizona
- Minnesota
- Arkansas
- Maine
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Kentucky
- North Dakota
- Iowa
- New York
- Indiana
- Nebraska
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- Nevada
- Hawaii
- Montana
- California
- Michigan
- Colorado
- Pennsylvania
- Missouri
- Tennessee
- Maryland
- Oklahoma
- Connecticut
- Wyoming
- Alabama
- Idaho
- Texas
- Illinois
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Alaska
- Ohio
- Vermont
- Utah
- Oregon
- West Virginia
- New Mexico
- Delaware
- Rhode Island
- Washington, D.C.
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