The 5 U.S. states where unemployment claims have recovered the most since the start of the pandemic

For the week ending on March 21, there were around 684,000 new unemployment claims across the country, according to WalletHub. That’s down significantly from April 2020, when 6.6 million first-time claims were made in just one week.

But some states are recovering faster than others. WalletHub determined which states saw the number of unemployment claims decline the most since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. The data compares the number of initial unemployment claims made the week of March 15, 2021 to those made the week of March 16, 2020.

WalletHub then calculated the percent change in claims and ranked each state from highest to lowest.

Here are the five states where unemployment claims have recovered the most since the start of the pandemic.

• Change in number of unemployment claims for the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2019: 145.85% increase
• Change in the number of unemployment claims in the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2020: 11.68% increase

• Change in number of unemployment claims for the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2019: 161.85% increase
• Change in the number of unemployment claims in the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2020: 11.67% decrease

• Change in number of unemployment claims in the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2019: 76.92% increase
• Change in the number of unemployment claims in the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2020: 58.96% decrease

• Change in number of unemployment claims in the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2019: 61.65% increase
• Change in the number of unemployment claims in the week of March 15 compared to the same week in 2020: 29.55% decrease