For the week ending March 28 the number of Americans seeking unemployment insurance benefits reached 6.6 million. Residents of Massachusetts accounted for roughly 181,000.
The data and finance experts at WalletHub examined unemployment across all 50 states to understand the effects social distancing has had on employment across the country.
To analyze how unemployment has affected people in different states, Wallethub started with claim increases for the week ending on March 28. They compared the current rates the same week in March 2019 and to the first week of 2020.
Using those data points, Wallethub then ranked all 50 states by the largest increases in unemployment.
Massachusetts ranked #14 in their analysis, ahead of all New England states except New Hampshire and just ahead of Hawaii but just below Nevada.
See the full report.
