Unemployment Claims in Iowa Are Lower Than Pre-COVID Levels

We need to look for the positives wherever we can find them.

It seems unemployment claims in Iowa are 13.29% lower than pre-Covid levels which means we're goin gin the right direction.

According to WalletHub Iowa is having a successful recovery from new unemployment claims, with last week’s claims lower than in the same week in 2019.

Here are some key takeaways from the survey.

• Weekly unemployment claims in Iowa decreased by 13.29% compared to the same week in 2019. This was the 6th biggest decrease in the U.S.
• Weekly unemployment claims in Iowa decreased by 60.31% compared to the start of 2020. This was the 10th biggest decrease in the U.S.
• Weekly unemployment claims in Iowa decreased by 71.49% compared to the same week last year. This was the 16th biggest decrease in the U.S.

Iowa comes in 7th among the states that are recovering more quickly. North Dakota ranks at number one, then Kentucky and South Carolina. Illinois however isn't doing so well. The state is ranked at 47.

Even though sometimes it might not feel like it, the U.S. is making significant progress in the fight against COVID-19 with the distribution of the vaccine, and this has been reflected in the job market, according to WalletHub despite new unemployment claims increasing slightly week-over-week on August 16.

There are currently 8.7 million Americans unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in total. To help get a better picture check out these stats from the study to get a better perspective.

There were 353,000 new unemployment claims nationwide, which is fewer than the 6.1 million during the peak of the pandemic (a 94% reduction).

• Ten states had unemployment claims last week that were lower than before the pandemic: North Dakota, Arizona, Arkansas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Vermont, New York, Kentucky and Louisiana.
• Surprisingly, four states (Virginia, New Mexico, Maryland, and Oregon) and D.C. had unemployment claims last week that were worse than the same week last year.

Hopefully Iowa can keep moving in the right direction. In the meantime, Illinois needs to make some changes. Get the full study and more details here from WalletHub.