With 26.5 million Americans without jobs, these are the states with the biggest increases in unemployment due to coronavirus
Nickie Louise
Posted On April 23, 2020
Last week, we published a report of the states with the biggest increases in unemployment due to coronavirus, based on the findings from WalletHub, a leading personal finance website that helps consumers make smarter financial decisions. Since then, additional 4.427 million Americans have filed for unemployment for the week ended April 18, according to the Labor Department.
Today’s unemployment numbers show that roughly 26.5 million Americans have lost their jobs since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, completely wiping out the 22.7 million new jobs created since the Great Recession and adding another somber milestone to the economic toll this novel virus has taken on the U.S. Not all areas of the country have suffered equally, however, as you can see from WalletHub’s updated rankings for the States with the Biggest Increases in Unemployment Due to Coronavirus, released today, along with accompanying videos.
To identify which states’ workforces have been hurt most by COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on increases in unemployment claims. We used this data to rank the most impacted states in both the latest week for which we have data (April 13) 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.
| Most Affected States Last Week | Least Affected States Last Week |
| 1. Florida | 42. New Jersey |
| 2. Louisiana | 43. Illinois |
| 3. West Virginia | 44. Montana |
| 4. Kentucky | 45. Idaho |
| 5. Mississippi | 46. Wisconsin |
| 6. Georgia | 47. Vermont |
| 7. North Carolina | 48. Massachusetts |
| 8. New Hampshire | 49. Wyoming |
| 9. Virginia | 50. Oregon |
| 10. Colorado | 51. Rhode Island |
To see the states most impacted since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, click here.
To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-biggest-increase-in-unemployment-due-to-coronavirus/72730/
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to schedule a phone, Skype or in-studio interview with one of our analysts. Full data sets for specific states are also available upon request. In addition, feel free to embed this YouTube video summarizing the study on your website. You can also use or edit these raw files as you see fit.
