New unemployment claims increased week-over-week on February 27 in the face of high inflation and the threat of a recession, up 11.1% from the previous week. To help add some context to this statistic, WalletHub just released updated rankings for the States Where Unemployment Claims Are Increasing the Most. 

Key Stats:

• While there was an increase in weekly claims nationally, 18 states (including the District of Columbia, Kansas, and Oklahoma) had unemployment claims last week that were better than the same week last year.  

• Every state had unemployment claims last week that were higher than in the previous week except for Rhode Island, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Montana, Florida, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wyoming, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Mississippi, West Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

• 21 states and the District of Columbia had unemployment claims last week that were higher than in the same week pre-pandemic: Maine, Tennessee, Illinois, Wyoming, Hawaii, South Dakota, Texas, Kentucky, California, Minnesota, Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina, Arizona, Connecticut, Utah, Massachusetts, Ohio, Nevada, New Jersey, and New York. 

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-unemployment-claims/72730