New unemployment claims pertaining to the U.S. economy decreased slightly week-over-week on January 23 amid high inflation and the threat of a recession. At the same time, employers added 517,000 jobs last month, the U.S. Labor Department is reported to have told the BBC. This is far more than many analysts expected, pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.4 percent – the lowest rate since 1969.
To help add some context to the economic indicators the website WalletHub has released rankings for the U.S. states “Where Unemployment Claims Are Decreasing the Most.”
The analysis finds that 24 states had unemployment claims that were lower than in the previous week. These were: Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Rhode Island, Maine, Missouri, Michigan, Idaho, California, Louisiana, Alabama, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Arizona, North Carolina, Delaware, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington and Connecticut.
As a sign of improved economic performance, every state had unemployment claims last week that were lower than in the same week pre-pandemic (2019) except for Minnesota, Idaho, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, New York, Indiana, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, Oregon and Utah.
However, 13 states – including South Carolina, Colorado, and Utah – had unemployment claims last week that were worse than the same week last year.
The states that saw the greatest reduction were:
1. Kentucky
2. West Virginia
3. Maryland
4. Arkansas
5. New Hampshire
6. Oklahoma
7. Delaware
8. Maine
9. District of Columbia
10. Florida
In contrast, the states that recorded the weakest reductions were:
42. Hawaii
43. Wisconsin
44. Alaska
45. Kansas
46. New York
47. Colorado
48. Montana
49. Georgia
50. Oregon
51. Utah The signs overall are encouraging and other economic signals suggest the gap between job openings and hiring, which also suggests that wage growth could remain high.
