Georgia workforce endures slowest recovery from coronavirus of all states, report says
Georgia has seen the slowest economic recovery in the United States since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, specifically when it comes to weekly unemployment claims.
That’s the finding of a new WalletHub report ranking Georgia 51st among U.S. states and Washington, D.C. when it comes to whose workforces have bounced back the fastest.
Since March 16, 2020, the Peach State has experienced a more than 3,000% increase in the number of unemployment insurance initial claims filed compared to this time last year — indicating the slowest recovery in the nation.
Florida’s workforce has seen the second-slowest recovery from COVID-19, followed by New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Virginia, according to the report released Thursday.
“The U.S. is still firmly in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led some states to temporarily pause their reopening processes or even close down some of the businesses that previously reopened,” it reads. “Despite that, the U.S. experienced fewer new unemployment claims last week than the previous week, a 13% decrease, which shows that we’re making progress toward recovery.”
Connecticut ranked first in the report for recovering most quickly since the onset of the coronavirus crisis. Oregon came in close second, followed by New Jersey, Vermont and Illinois.
The rankings varied slightly when looking at which states’ unemployment claims have recovered the fastest since the week of Aug. 24 compared to this time last year.
Oregon had the greatest improvement in the U.S while Georgia, again, had the least, according to the report.
To determine which states are experiencing the quickest recovery amid the pandemic, the financial services website compared the 50 states and D.C. across three metrics measuring changes in weekly jobless claims. WalletHub used data from the U.S. Department of Labor to come up with its rankings.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 881,000 last week, according to the Labor Department’s weekly report. It’s a slight improvement from the 1 million filed the previous week as the department adopted a new method of calculating new jobless claims.