Virginia’s rate of recovery from unemployment claims is the slowest among the 50 states, according to a report released Thursday by the personal finance website WalletHub.
Only Washington, D.C., is recovering at a slower rate than the commonwealth.
While the number of unemployment claims nationally decreased in the week ending Sept. 27, according to WalletHub, 8.4 million Americans remain unemployed due to the pandemic.
The website reports that in the latest week, 326,000 new unemployment claims were failed nationwide, far fewer than the 6.1 million during the peak of the pandemic.
According to WalletHub’s survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 18 states had unemployment claims last week that were lower than before the pandemic: South Carolina, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nevada, Illinois, Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, North Dakota, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey.
On the other hand, Washington, D.C,, had unemployment claims last week that were worse than the same week last year.
WalletHub cited three key statistics that largely account for Virginia’s rank ahead of only D.C.
In the last week, weekly unemployment claims in Virginia increased by 316.58% compared to the same week in 2019, the second biggest increase in the U.S.
Weekly unemployment claims in Virginia increased by 205.77% compared to the start of 2020, the second biggest increase in the U.S.
WalletHub did report one bright spot for the commonwealth. In the most recent week, weekly unemployment claims in Virginia decreased by 10.10% compared to the same week last year. The bad news was that this represented the third smallest decrease in the country.
The ten places in the country with the slowest rate of recovery from unemployment, according to WalletHub’s ranking, are 42. Oregon 43. Alabama 44. Tennessee 45. New Mexico 46. Hawaii 47. California 48. Nebraska 49. Michigan 50. Virginia 51. District of Columbia.
WalletHub’s ranking of the ten states recovering the fastest from unemployment claims are 1. South Carolina 2. Arkansas 3. Kansas 4. South Dakota 5. West Virginia 6. Montana 7. New Hampshire 8. Missouri 9. Illinois 10. Washington.