With COVID-19’s continued grip on the U.S. and an uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, new unemployment claims increased slightly week-over-week on November 16, but were still 89% below the peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. To help add some context to these statistics, WalletHub just released updated rankings for the States Whose Weekly Unemployment Claims Are Recovering the Quickest, along with accompanying videos and audio files.
To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the quickest recovery from COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three metrics based on changes in unemployment claims. Below, you can see highlights from the report, along with a WalletHub Q&A. To see the states most recovered since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.
| Most Recovered Last Week | Least Recovered Last Week |
| 1. New Jersey | 42. Massachusetts |
| 2. South Carolina | 43. Alaska |
| 3. West Virginia | 44. Florida |
| 4. Pennsylvania | 45. Louisiana |
| 5. Wyoming | 46. Illinois |
| 6. Oregon | 47. Virginia |
| 7. Connecticut | 48. Indiana |
| 8. District of Columbia | 49. Colorado |
| 9. South Dakota | 50. Kansas |
| 10. Arkansas | 51. New Mexico |
