Oklahoma Hit Hardest by Recent Unemployment Claims
Oklahoma has seen the largest increase in unemployment claims in the United States over the past year, according to personal finance website WalletHub. The state has seen a 2,507.19% increase in unemployment claims from June 2019 to June 2020, which ranks as the highest increase in the nation. Oklahoma saw the number of unemployment claims rise to 50,397 for the week of June 1, 2020, compared to 1,933 for the week of June 3, 2019.
In order to determine the ranking, WalletHub used unemployment data from the most recently available data, from June 1, and compared it to each state’s number of claims to the amount made over the same period in the previous year. This data was analyzed, and each state was ranked.
Georgia is just behind Oklahoma when ranking states by the largest increase in unemployment claims. Georgia saw an increase of 2,410.45%, the only other state to have a percentage increase over 2,000%. Kentucky (1,741.71%) was third, followed by New Hampshire (1,563.46%), Maryland (1,243.27%), Florida (1,187.96%), Mississippi (1,090.32%), Virginia (969.27%), North Carolina (920.88%) and Massachusetts (906.80%) rounded out the top-10.
New Jersey has seen an increase of 175.30% in year-over-year claims, which ranks last in the study. Pennsylvania was next at 188.46%, followed by Arkansas (200.13%), Montana (256.16%) and Idaho (270.95%).
Since the start of 2020 the state has experienced the third-highest increase in the nation, a 1,612.44% jump from the 2,943 unemployment claims filed for the week of January 1, 2020. Florida is the state listed with the highest percentage increase for claims since the beginning of January at 2,293.24%, followed by Mississippi at 1,684.47%. Oklahoma was third and were joined in the top-5 by Louisiana (1,227.02%) and Maryland (932.25%). Other states in the top-10 for this category include Virginia (846.17%), North Carolina (844.93%), New Hampshire (777.54%), Georgia (689.63%) and Kentucky (683.30%).
Idaho has fared the best of any state since the beginning of the year, with only a 23.94% increase in unemployment claims from January to June. New Jersey is the second-least affected at 47.61%, followed by Rhode Island (76.72%), Maine (82.26%) and Pennsylvania (83.49%). Oklahoma was ranked ninth in the percentage increase of unemployment claims made since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, marked in this study as March 16. The Sooner State has seen claims rise by 2,697.11%, from 22,423 claims between March 18, 2019 to June 3, 2019 to 604,772 claims between March 16, 2020 and June 1, 2020. Georgia ranks first in that category with a 4,438.29% increase since the start of the pandemic. New Hampshire (3,763.22%) was next, followed by Florida (3,618.50%), Kentucky (3,586.20%), Virginia (2,901.47%), North Carolina (2901.13%), Louisiana (2,756.46%), Indiana (2,706.78%), Oklahoma and South Dakota ranked 10th at 2,561.36%.
Oregon has been least impacted since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, as that state’s unemployment claims have increased by 1,033.58%, the lowest for any state in America over that span. Connecticut was next at 1,052.18% and Arkansas (1,089.14%), California (1,097.40%) and Alaska (1,110.65%) complete the top-5.
More than 44 million Americans have filed a jobless claim since the COVID-19 pandemic began. There were 1.5 million people that filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week, according to the Department of Labor.