Here Are the States Where Unemployment Claims Are Dropping the Quickest
The number of Americans receiving jobless benefits fell below 20 million for the first time in two months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The BLS further reported that the largest decreases in initial jobless claims for the week ending June 20 came in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Oregon, Georgia and Texas while the largest increases were in California, Maryland, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Meanwhile, the highest unemployment rates in the country for the week ending June 6 were Nevada (22.6 percent), Puerto Rico (20.6), Hawaii (18.3), New York (17.8), California (17.3), Michigan (16.9), Louisiana (16.2), Massachusetts (16.2) and Connecticut (15.8).
According to Wallethub, though Connecticut still has one of the highest unemployment rates, it has also seen the quickest drop in overall unemployment claims since the start of COVID-19.
Oregon came in second, followed by Vermont, New Jersey, Arkansas, California, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Illinois and Alaska.
Weekly jobless claims worse than forecast at 1.48 million https://t.co/GF1ewRKlN9 pic.twitter.com/HlnXQNhbY4
— Bloomberg Markets (@markets) June 25, 2020
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits nationwide fell to 1.48 million last week, which was slightly below the previous week’s level of 1.54 million.
The latest numbers are significantly below the 7 million claim peak in mid-March.
For the week ending June 13, there were approximately 19.5 million Americans receiving unemployment payments, which was down 767,000 from the previous week.
The unemployment rate nationally was 12.3 percent for the same time period, a decline of 0.3 percent (page 2 BLS report).
“The claims trend mirrors shifts in other segments of the economy, indicating conditions have improved since hitting a low earlier in the crisis but have much ground to regain,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
“There’s still this two tracks of this ongoing hemorrhaging of jobs while we also see a lot of people getting rehired,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
Economists are anticipating a strong monthly jobs report for June when it is released next week, with 3 million jobs added, according to Bloomberg.
If accurate, that figure will come on top of the surprise 2.5 million additional jobs in May, as the unemployment rate dropped from 14.7 to 13.3 percent.
President @realDonaldTrump: “we saved millions of lives and now we’re opening and we’re opening with a bang”
“This is better than a ‘V,’ This is a rocket ship.”pic.twitter.com/uzexrqPKJN
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) June 5, 2020
“This is a rocket ship,” Trump said of the May jobs numbers.
“We made a big step in our comeback.”
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