According to WalletHub, 17.8 million Americans are still
unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many
employers to lay off thousands of workers in order to adapt to the resulting economic
challenges. However, as states began to reopen earlier in the summer, there is
evidence that the job market is starting to recover from the losses, as there
has been a spike in hiring. The "June Jobs Report" conducted by WalletHub
demonstrated that the United States has added 4.8 million nonfarm payroll jobs last
month. This figure exceeded the predictions of experts and evidences that the
reopening of states did have a positive impact on alleviating the impacts of
unemployment. However, as more cases of COVID-19 continue to be reported
nationwide, some states have been forced to slow down their reopening process,
which could negatively impact the employment sector.
In order to identify how states are recovering from
unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WalletHub compared the 50 states
across three metrics that analyze changes in unemployment claims. Their
findings proved that the states with the quickest recoveries from the loss of
jobs since the beginning of the pandemic include Connecticut, Oregon, New
Jersey, and Vermont. Some of the states with the least amount of jobs recovered
since the beginning of the pandemic include Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, and
Oklahoma. Louisiana ranks as the state with the least amount of jobs recovered
since the first week of July and was also reported to be the worst state in
terms of recovery of unemployment insurance claims.
