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Up and away? U.S. states showing employment rate recoveries

The U.S. economy shows signs of recovering in terms of employment, but there is a considerable variance between different states.

US dollar, stocks hit as jobs disappoint
The US economy created last month less than a third of the jobs expected, a major disappointment that could see the Fed hold back on removing stimulus support for the US economy - Copyright AFP THOMAS KIENZLE
The US economy created last month less than a third of the jobs expected, a major disappointment that could see the Fed hold back on removing stimulus support for the US economy - Copyright AFP THOMAS KIENZLE

There are signs that the employment situation in the U.S.is improving following a downward spiral during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall the U.S. economy gained 199,000 jobs in December 2021. Although this was below the previous month’s 249,000 jobs, the data is encouraging to the Biden Administration.

U.S. unemployment rate stands at 3.9 percent, which is still higher than it was before the pandemic but is much lower than the nearly historic high of 14.7 percent in April 2020.

Taking the data set and analyzing it according to each U.S. state, the finance site WalletHub has released updated rankings. This appears in a report titled “States Whose Unemployment Rates Are Bouncing Back Most”.

The ‘bounce back’ ranking is not simply based om jobs, for a series of metrics were used to make the assessment. For this, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on five key metrics that compare unemployment rate statistics from the latest month for which data is available (December 2021) to key dates in 2019 and 2020.

The metrics used were:

  • Change in Unemployment in December 2021 vs. December 2019
  • Change in Unemployment in December 2021 vs. January 2020
  • Change in Unemployment in December 2021 vs. December 2020
  • Not Seasonally Adjusted Continued Claims in December 2021 vs. December 2019
  • Unemployment Rate (December 2021)

The data shows the top ten states that have recovered the most are:

  1. Nebraska        
  2. Utah   
  3. Oklahoma       
  4. Montana         
  5. Georgia
  6. Idaho  
  7. New Hampshire         
  8. Vermont         
  9. South Dakota 
  10. Virginia          

In contrast, at the other end of the scale, the ten states that have not shown signs of a significant recovery (relative to the other states) are:

  1. Michigan
  2. Maine
  3. New Mexico
  4. Connecticut
  5. Alaska
  6. New York
  7. California
  8. New Jersey
  9. Nevada
  10. Hawaii

There are reasons why some states struggle to address the unemployment problem. According to Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst there are pandemic and non-pandemic issues: “One of the main reasons that businesses still have problems finding workers is the continued presence of the pandemic, especially the Delta variant. Some workers have voluntarily quit their jobs as a way to minimize contact with other people. Other people are waiting to apply for jobs that provide better wages and benefits.”

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Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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