The labor market has, without question, weakened in 2025 — with layoffs hitting the worst level since the height of the pandemic. However, some good news was revealed for the week-over-week on November 24, with unemployment claims dropping 12.4 percent during the period.
WalletHub crunched the numbers based on the latest data to find the number of unemployment claims per 100,000 by state. Fifteen states with the highest unemployment claims were Oregon (262), Minnesota (238), North Dakota (232), Pennsylvania (231), Montana (201), Rhode Island (200), New Jersey (198), Alaska (188), Wisconsin (174), California (170), Vermont (168), Iowa (162), Illinois (162), Washington (160) and Nebraska (153).
On the other end were Florida (32), New Hampshire (38), North Carolina (38), Virginia (40), Arizona (40), Alabama (46), Louisiana (48), Georgia (50), Oklahoma (52), Maryland (54), South Carolina (55), Indiana (65), Texas (70), Kansas (71) and Mississippi (71).
Then comes the year-over-year changes in unemployment claims. The 15 states with the biggest decreases were North Dakota (-45.68%), Kentucky (-33%), Louisiana (-30.64%), Idaho (-30.63%), New Hampshire (-29.55%), Alabama (-25.78%), Georgia (-25.54%), Michigan (-24.25%), Arizona (-22.69%), Massachusetts (-22.33%), Indiana (-21.64%), North Carolina (-19.53%), Maryland (-19.12%), Iowa (-16.94%) and Utah (-15.51%).
The 15 regions with the highest increases were Nebraska (+65.06%), Virginia (+40.50%), Oregon (+20.02%), Maine (+19.56%), Alaska (+18.24%), District of Columbia (+18.16%), Hawaii (+17.54%), Colorado (+14.03%), Connecticut (+8.76%), Kansas (+7.57%), South Carolina (+6.24%), New Mexico (+3.92%), Missouri (+3.39%), Minnesota (+2.85%) and Delaware (+1.94%).
For a more contextual look, the data also included changes in unemployment claims year-over-year on a year-to-date basis. The 15 areas with the highest reduction were Wisconsin (-15.80%), Alaska (-13.26%), Indiana (-12.80%), Montana (-12.25%), Arizona (-12.04%), Iowa (-9.24%), Massachusetts (-8.33%), Alabama (-7.84%), Arkansas (-6.56%), Hawaii (-6.34%), Georgia (-5.90%), Florida (-5.81%), North Carolina (-5.09%), West Virginia (-4.65%) and Mississippi (-3.67%).
And then, the 15 states that saw the highest increases of initial unemployment claims year-to-date were the District of Columbia (+81.02%), Kentucky (+55.57%), Virginia (+24.66%), Nebraska (+16.12%), Delaware (+15.14%), Illinois (+13.71%), Maryland (13.47%), Colorado (+10.06%), Rhode Island (+9.38%), Oregon (+8.99%), Tennessee(+8.70%), Vermont (+8.05%), Utah (+7.66%), New Mexico (+7.50%) and Connecticut (+7.23%).
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