In a report that will raise a few eyebrows, Delaware is listed as one of the states seeing a sharp downturn in new unemployment claims.
The report from WalletHub showed the state ranking third among the 50 states in the decline in unemployment claims in the previous week. Since the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns took place in March, the state has ranked 20th among the 50 states.
The decline in claims comes after the state reported a 15.8 percent unemployment rate, the seventh highest in the nation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The figures may suggest that Delaware, like Pennsylvania (No. 2) saw a sharp downturn in unemployment with a possible recovery down the road. However, Pennsylvania’s May jobless rate was well below the Delaware figure at 13.1 percent.
Ranking 51st was Oklahoma, with Rhode Island at No. 1.
May’s jobs report should be encouraging to American workers, as it shows that the U.S. actually gained 2.5 million nonfarm payroll jobs, WalletHub stated.
It may demonstrate that the process of beginning to reopen states has gone smoothly, and businesses are rehiring employees that they temporarily laid off while their buildings remained closed.
There are still 21 million Americans unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, there were 1.5 million new unemployment claims nationwide, compared to 6.9 million during the peak of the pandemic (a 78 percent reduction).
To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the quickest recovery from COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three metrics based on changes in unemployment claims.
