Oklahoma is having a successful recovery from new unemployment claims, with last week’s claims lower than in the same week in 2019, according to WalletHub’s updated rankings for the States Whose Unemployment Claims Are Recovering the Quickest,Key Stats:
Weekly unemployment claims in Oklahoma decreased by 18.92% compared to the same week in 2019. This was the 16th biggest decrease in the U.S.
• Weekly unemployment claims in Oklahoma decreased by 55.28% compared to the start of 2020. This was the 17th biggest decrease in the U.S.
• Weekly unemployment claims in Oklahoma decreased by 81.40% compared to the same week last year. This was the 10th biggest decrease in the U.S.
To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/st ates-unemploymentclaims/72730
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to schedule a phone, Skype or in-studio interview with one of our analysts. Full data sets for specific states are also available upon request. In addition, feel free to embed this YouTube video summarizing the study on your website. You can also use or edit these raw files (audio and video) as you see fit.
Unemployment is now at its lowest since the pandemic started. What does this mean for the U.S. economy?
“The national unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent last month, the lowest level since the prepandemic level of 3.5 percent. This means that decreasing Covid-19 cases brought on a high number of new jobs and new workers, which are both signs that the pandemic’s hold on the economy may also be decreasing,” said WalletHub Analyst, Jill Gonzalez. “U.S. employers added over 670,000 jobs in February, continuing the streak of strong job growth we've been seeing for months. Job growth, in combination with less mask and vaccine mandates nationwide, should spur even more economic recovery.”
How will low U.S. unemployment rates affect the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision?
“The U.S. unemployment rate is now at 3.8 percent, which is very close to the pre-pandemic normal of 3.5 percent. These numbers give the Federal Reserve room to start withdrawing the economic support that was put in place at the start of Covid-19's onslaught," said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub Analyst. "Understandably, the Federal Reserve wants to begin raising interest rates this year to try to combat high inflation, and the current unemployment rate might make that possible. It makes sense for interest rates to get back to pre-pandemic normalcy, too.”
Will the omicron variant continue to hold back hiring in the U.S.?
“The omicron variant could delay unemployment decreases in the short term,” said WalletHub analyst, Jill Gonzalez. “However, 2022 will most likely be another year of job gains that might even surpass the pre-pandemic levels. The good news is that the omicron variant seems to be much less severe than the previous strains and should peak soon. If that's the case, unemployment rates should start to drop even more in the coming months.”
How do red states and blue states compare when it comes to new unemployment claims?
“With an average rank of 27 among the most recovered states, blue states had a worse recovery from unemployment claims last week than red states, which rank 25 on average,” said Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst. “The lower the number of the ranking, the bigger the state’s recovery was.”