Despite COVID-19 raging across the U.S., new unemployment claims decreased week-over-week on August 3, and were still 86% below the peak during the COVID-19 pandemic. To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the quickest recovery from COVID-19, the personal financial website WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three metrics based on changes in unemployment claims. According to the report, California is among the slowest of all the states in its unemployment recovery. Managing editor Tami Roleff has more…
Comparing the week of August 3 with last year and with the beginning of 2020, California’s change in unemployment claims is the 12th and fifth slowest recovery in the United States, respectively. However, Jill Gonzalez with the financial website WalletHub said the number of new claims has dropped dramatically.
“For the week of August 3, California had 213,482 new unemployment claims, which is still an 80% decrease from the peak during the coronavirus pandemic.”
But, if children aren’t allowed to go back to school, Gonzalez said those unemployment claims could go up again.
“If schools only provide remote learning this fall, we could see a jump in unemployment. Young children will need supervision during the day, and parents who are unable to do their job remotely may be forced to take a leave from work to provide that supervision. Forcing parents to stay home could be especially devastating financially for single-parent households.”
Gonzalez offered a suggestion on how to keep unemployment low during the pandemic.
“To avoid a spike in unemployment, we should create a detailed plan for having in-person learning while providing a high level of safety for students and teachers, which will allow us to minimize negative consequences for both public health and the economy.”
More information is available at the link below. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-unemployment-claims/72730/
