New unemployment claims decreased by 7.3 percent week-over-week for the current period, in terms of the U.S. economy. This is despite high inflation and the threat of a recession. To help add some context to these statistics, the personal finance site WalletHub has released updated rankings for the “States Where Unemployment Claims Are Decreasing the Most”. These data outputs have been shared with Digital Journal.
The data indicates that each state is displaying unemployment claims that are lower than in the previous week. This is except for Louisiana, Utah, Colorado, Alaska, Arkansas, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Illinois, Oregon and Indiana. Wyoming has recorded no change.
This employment rate is a lagging indicator, since it rises or falls in the wake of changing economic conditions, rather than anticipating them.
A further positive sign is where every state has recorded unemployment claims that were lower than in the same week pre-pandemic (2019) except for Nevada, Missouri, Arkansas, Idaho, Maine, California, New York, Illinois, Georgia, New Jersey, Mississippi, Connecticut, Texas, Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota, District of Columbia, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Ohio, Indiana and Massachusetts.
The successful states, where unemployment claims decreased by the greatest amount are:
1. Kentucky
2. Oklahoma
3. Maryland
4. Delaware
5. District of Columbia
6. South Dakota
7. New Mexico
8. Alabama
9. New Hampshire
10. Kansas
However, there are some underperformers. This is with 27 states – including Colorado, Indiana, and Massachusetts – where unemployment claims are worse than the same week last year.
Across the most recent month, The unemployment rates for adult men (3.4 percent), adult women (3.1 percent), teenagers (9.8 percent), Whites (3.2 percent), Blacks (5.0 percent), and Asians (2.8 percent) showed little or no change over the month.
In relation to this, the states where unemployment claims decreased the least, are:
42. California
43. New Jersey
44. Alaska
45. Colorado
46. Minnesota
47. Illinois
48. Ohio
49. Oregon
50. Massachusetts
51. Indiana
Across all states there are variations with the data patterns. According to Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub Analyst: “Certain job types are still seeing higher levels of unemployment currently. For instance, construction jobs have very high unemployment numbers right now due to building activity slowdown, with higher interest rates lowering demand for new individual housing.”
