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.

Change in New Jersey Weekly Unemployment Claims (1=Quickest Recovery, 25=Avg.):

• 20.09% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Last Year)
  • 11,436 the week of November 16, 2020 vs 9,523 the week of November 18, 2019
  • The quickest recovery in the U.S.
• -25.38% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Start of 2020)
  • 11,436 the week of November 16, 2020 vs 15,325 the week of January 1, 2020
  • 2nd quickest recovery in the U.S.
• 566.42% Change in Unemployment Claims (Since Start of COVID-19 Crisis vs Last Year)
  • 1,772,278 between the week of March 16, 2020 and the week of November 16, 2020 vs 312,892 between the week of March 18, 2019 and the week of November 18, 2019
  • 3rd quickest recovery in the U.S.

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-unemployment-claims/72730/.