New unemployment claims in the U.S. decreased by 8.7 percent week-over-week last month, but of concern to overall economic perfomance, the claims for welfare were 1.8 percent higher when compared to the same week last year.
To help add some context to these statistics, the personal finance company WalletHub has released updated rankings for its report “States Where Unemployment Claims Are Decreasing the Most.”
This shows that every state had unemployment claims last week that were lower than in the previous week except for New Hampshire, New York, Arkansas, Vermont, Kentucky, Nebraska, West Virginia, Virginia, Texas, Arizona, Maine, Washington, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Connecticut, Wisconsin and California.
However, thirty-three states – including Nebraska, Kentucky, and Oregon – and the District of Columbia had unemployment claims were found to be worse than they were for the same time period last year. This decline across 2025 signals an element of concern about the overall robustness of the U.S. economy.
The top ten states showing the greatest reduction in claims are:
- Delaware
- Mississippi
- Alaska
- Louisiana
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- Massachusetts
- Maryland
- Florida
- Wyoming
In contrast, the top ten states with the smallest claim reduction are:
- Washington
- Utah
- Arkansas
- Oregon
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- Nebraska
- Kentucky
- New York
- District of Columbia
Commenting on the data, Douglas Swanson, Ed.D, ACUE – Labor Studies Program Coordinator; Associate Professor, University of St. Louis Missouri, explains that the immediate future is not necessarily going to show an upturn: “Unemployment will still continue to be an issue in some industries and in some locations.”
This is because: “As the workforce gets tighter aligning the available workers with the available jobs becomes the more critical challenge. I foresee that employers are going to have to look more closely at the upcoming availability of new workers in a geographic region, with the skill sets, or with the ability to acquire those skill sets, as they look for site locations of future businesses.”
This is not straightforward. Swanson adds: “Where are the workers going to come from? If unemployment is low, how are you going to attract the workers you need away from other employers? How are you going to keep them once you have them?”
In trying to resolve these: “You can have the best business plan, and the best product, if you don’t have the people to make that product, how successful will you be.”
