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With nearly 39 million Americans now jobless as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but many people making more money while unemployed, WalletHub today released updated rankings for the States Hit Most by Unemployment Claims.
To identify which states’ workforces have been hurt the most by COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on increases in unemployment claims. They used this data to rank the most impacted states in both the latest week for which we have data (May 11) and overall since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis (March 16). Below, you can see highlights from the report, along with a WalletHub Q&A. To see the states most impacted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas ranked 17
| Most Affected States Last Week | Least Affected States Last Week |
| 1. Florida | 42. Idaho |
| 2. Georgia | 43. Iowa |
| 3. Washington | 44. West Virginia |
| 4. South Dakota | 45. Ohio |
| 5. New Hampshire | 46. New Jersey |
| 6. Virginia | 47. Pennsylvania |
| 7. Mississippi | 48. Montana |
| 8. Kentucky | 49. Rhode Island |
| 9. Louisiana | 50. Vermont |
| 10. North Carolina | 51. Maine |
WalletHub Q&A
Is it a good thing that many people are making more money while unemployed than they did while employed?
“Given the temporary nature of the increase in unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a good thing that many Americans will have a few months during which they will make more money while unemployed than they did while employed. Some benefits expire in July, while others expire in December, which lets unemployed Americans have a short period of extra financial security as they try to find new jobs in the struggling economy,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “In the long term, people naturally should not continue to make more while unemployed than they did while employed, as this will reduce the incentive to work and will lead to a lot more federal spending.”
What can states do in order to minimize the rise in their unemployment rates?
“States should aggressively focus on keeping residents safe from coronavirus while enabling economic activity, which requires moving out of the phase of simply issuing guidelines on people’s behavior and instead of passing laws,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “When states reopen businesses, they should simultaneously issue strict rules such as mandatory mask-wearing in public and limits on the number of people in a store. If COVID-19 restrictions are recommendations rather than laws, that allows people to disregard the safety of others for their own comfort and risk spreading the disease.”
How has the unemployment rate in New York – the state with the most COVID-19 cases – been affected?
“New York has seen a 405% increase in initial unemployment claims from the beginning of 2020 to the week of May 11,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “This is better than the average increase of 652%.”
