5 States Where Coronavirus Layoffs Are Hitting the Hardest
The economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen, as stay-at-home orders have made more nonessential businesses shut their doors. The disruptions have had a huge effect on the workforce, with many businesses lacking the financial resources to keep workers on the payroll without revenue coming in.
This week, first-time claims for unemployment benefits nationwide hit 5.82 million, according to the Labor Department. That was nearly double the 2.92 million claims from the week before on an unadjusted basis, which in turn had soared more than 10 times compared with the week of March 14. When you add in the Labor Department's seasonal adjustment factor, the headline number of claims jumped even further to nearly 6.65 million.
The report also released some numbers from individual states showing that some are taking a harder hit from coronavirus layoffs than others. What's surprising, though, is that some states with smaller populations had more jobless claims than the largest ones that you'd typically find at the top of such lists. Below, we'll look at the five states with the biggest rise in jobless claims in the most recent report.
Source Fool.com