These 5 states saw the biggest increases in unemployment claims last week

The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid remained historically high last week, suggesting employers are still cutting jobs as a coronavirus resurgence threatens to derail the economy's recovery.

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The latest jobless claims figures from the Labor Department, which covers the week ended July 11, show that 1.3 million workers sought jobless aid last week, pushing the total number since the shutdown began to more than 51 million. It's the 17th week in a row that jobless claims came in above 1 million; before the pandemic, the record high was 695,000 set in 1982.

Still, while barely lower than the previous week, new claims are markedly lower than they were in mid-March, when they peaked near 7 million.

The resurgence of infections and new shutdown measures in several U.S. states, including Florida and California, has intensified fears that the economic recovery is plateauing.

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"Initial jobless filings were relatively unchanged last week, showing the labor market paused from its healing process," said Scott Murray, Nationwide's financial economist. "Outsized gains in several states where new COVID-19 cases are rising offset the improvement from reopening regions. As consumers and firms adjust to renewed concerns over the virus’s spread, claims activity should remain volatile."

Some states have hit pause on their plans to reopen, while others, including California, are reimposing restrictions they had previously lifted. As a result, the number of applications for jobless aid that each state saw varied widely.

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These five states saw the biggest increases in unemployment claims last week, according to Labor Department data:

1. Florida: Increased by 62,467 claims to 129,408 
2. Georgia: Increased by 31,176 claims to 136,336
3. California: Increased by 22,941 claims to 287,732 
4. Washington: Increased by 12,272 claims to 41,778
5. Indiana: Increased by 6,935 claims to 29,037 

And these five states saw the biggest decreases in unemployment claims last week:

1. Maryland: Decreased by 14,534 claims to 18,657
2. Texas: Decreased by 11,509 claims to 105,590
3. New Jersey: Decreased by 10,055 claims to 37,347 
4. Michigan: Decreased by 9,705 claims to 24,897
5. Louisiana: Decreased by 4,605 claims to 26,812

Florida is the state that has recovered the second-slowest since the country came to a grinding halt in mid-March to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, according to data published by WalletHub. The only state that has recovered slower than Florida is Georgia, which was among the first to reopen its economy.

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