Despite the fact that the U.S. has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic for over a year, new unemployment claims decreased week-over-week on January 18, and were 88% 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.
| Most Recovered Last Week | Least Recovered Last Week |
| 1. California | 42. New Hampshire |
| 2. New Jersey | 43. New Mexico |
| 3. Arkansas | 44. Mississippi |
| 4. Iowa | 45. Virginia |
| 5. Pennsylvania | 46. Louisiana |
| 6. Missouri | 47. Rhode Island |
| 7. South Dakota | 48. Maryland |
| 8. Michigan | 49. Florida |
| 9. Montana | 50. Illinois |
| 10. West Virginia | 51. Kansas |
States with Weekly Claims Better Than 2019:
- California
