New unemployment claims increased by 3.3% week-over-week on May 26, and were 7.9% higher compared to the same week last year. To help add some context to this statistic, WalletHub just released updated rankings for the States Where Unemployment Claims Are Increasing the Most.
U.S. unemployment has experienced fluctuations and a small overall rise over the past year. Most recently, the job market continued to falter, with new unemployment claims increasing by 3.3% week-over-week on May 26. There are currently 7.2 million Americans unemployed in total, and it’s important to look at some key stats for the latest week to get the complete picture.
To identify where unemployment claims are increasing the most, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on changes in unemployment claims for several key benchmark weeks.
Key Stats:
- The following states had unemployment claims last week that were higher than in the previous week: Kentucky, North Dakota, Tennessee, Minnesota, Kansas, Ohio, Wyoming, Mississippi, New Mexico, Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Arkansas, Missouri and Indiana.
- While there was an increase in weekly claims nationally, 20 states – including Iowa, South Dakota and Montana – had unemployment claims last week that were better than the same week last year.
| Biggest Increase Last Week | Smallest Increase Last Week | |
| 1. Kentucky | 42. Arizona | |
| 2. District of Columbia | 43. Maine | |
| 3. North Dakota | 44. Vermont | |
| 4. Minnesota | 45. Oklahoma | |
| 5. Tennessee | 46. Alabama | |
| 6. Kansas | 47. Florida | |
| 7. Illinois | 48. South Dakota | |
| 8. Oregon | 49. Montana | |
| 9. New Mexico | 50. New Hampshire | |
| 10. Nevada | 51. Iowa | |
To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-unemployment-claims/72730
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Thomas Hyslip lives in Tega Cay with his wife and daughter. After 27 years in the U.S. Army and Federal Law Enforcement, he retired to pursue his passion for teaching. Tom is now an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of South Florida. In 2 short years he has won 10 awards from the South Carolina Press Association, including first place in column writing, education beat reporting and best podcast.
