New unemployment claims increased in the U.S. by 5.3 percent week-over-week at the end of February 2025. These figures were slightly higher compared to the same week last year.
To help add some context to this statistic, the finance firm WalletHub has released updated rankings for the States Where Unemployment Claims Are Increasing the Most.
The report reveals that every state had unemployment claims last week that were higher than in the previous week except for Florida, New Mexico, Iowa, Indiana, Maryland, Oklahoma, Michigan, Missouri, West Virginia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Idaho, Vermont, Massachusetts, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Delaware.
While there was an increase in weekly claims nationally, 28 states (including Missouri, Arkansas, and Hawaii) had unemployment claims last week that were better than the same week last year.
There are different data sources that can be drawn upon, including (a) the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly release of initial UI claims, (b) the weekly Google Trends index of unemployment-related search histories.
The survey reveals the states showing the largest increases to be:
- District of Columbia
- Kansas
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Louisiana
- California
- Utah
- Oregon
- Colorado
- Wisconsin
In contrast, those states displaying the smallest increases are:
- Arizona
- Wyoming
- Vermont
- Maryland
- South Dakota
- Oklahoma
- New Hampshire
- Nebraska
- Montana
- Delaware
Commenting on the research, Joyce P. Jacobsen – Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Wesleyan University, looks to the future: “The unemployment rate will likely stay relatively low, but that hides some continuing weaknesses in the labor market, including those working part-time when they would prefer full-time, those who are underemployed relative to their skill set, and those who have exited the market prematurely or stay on the sidelines (and are those not counted as unemployed) because they cannot find suitable work.”
Unemployment insurance claims are an important and timely indicator of U.S. labor market activity, making them a widely tracked leading indicator of the business cycle.
