WalletHub recently released an article ranking each state in terms of unemployment statistics to determine which states are bouncing back the most. The U.S. unemployment rate sits at 3.6%, which is still slightly higher than it was before the pandemic but is far lower than the nearly historic high of 14.7% in April 2020, reports WalletHub.
In order to determine the states whose unemployment rates are bouncing back most, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across two categories. In the first category, WalletHub compared the change in unemployment for the latest month for which WalletHub had data (May 2022) to May 2019, May 2020, May 2021 and January 2020, in order to show the impact since 2019 and since the beginning of the pandemic. WalletHub also compared not seasonally adjusted continued claims in May 2022 to May 2019. In the second category, WalletHub looked at the state’s overall unemployment rate and then used the average of those categories to rank-order the states.
Tennessee sits right in the middle at 25th, according to Wallet Hub’s report.
Stats from Wallet Hub:
- 0.7% unemployment rate change May 2019 vs May 2022.
- -6.1% unemployment rate change May 2022 vs January 2020
- -71.6% unemployment rate change May 2022 vs May 2020
- -26.3% unemployment rate change May 2022 vs May 2021
Also, the total unemployment rate in the Volunteer state sits at 3.3% which is 26th in the nation. This is just under the national average of 3.6%.
“The biggest thing that unemployed people should look for when choosing which businesses to apply to is compensation that’s appropriate for their field and skill level. Since there is currently an employment shortage, workers are in a great position to negotiate a worthwhile compensation package,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst.
The state with the largest current unemployment rate is New Mexico with 5.1% and Washington D.C. with 5.7%. Minnesota posted the worst change in employment from May 2019 to May 2022 with a -39.7% decrease.
