States Where Being Jobless Stinks the Most, and the Least

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Not all states are equal when it comes to being unemployed.

The challenges of recovering from joblessness vary from state to state, according to 24/7 Wall St. The struggles extend beyond the state’s unemployment rate.

Unemployment insurance is not easy to obtain in many states. Plus, since 2011, nine states have reduced the number of weeks unemployed individuals can receive benefits.

In an effort to identify the best (and worst) states to be unemployed, 24/7 Wall St. analyzed and ranked the following for all 50 states: annual unemployment rate, unemployment recipiency rate, weekly benefit amount as a percentage of weekly wages, and the one-year job growth rate.

A state’s unemployment rate is one of the strongest indicators of a labor market’s health and how challenging it can be to find work. The unemployment rate in all of the 10 best states to be unemployed was lower than the national rate of 6.2 percent. On the other hand, in the 10 worst states to be unemployed, it was above the national rate.

Another measure used in the analysis was the “exhaustion rate” of unemployment insurance, in other words, how likely recipients were to use up all of their benefits before getting a job.

24/7 Wall St. said these are the 10 best states to be unemployed:

  1. North Dakota
  2. Hawaii
  3. Utah
  4. Minnesota
  5. Iowa
  6. Colorado
  7. Vermont
  8. Kansas
  9. Montana
  10. South Dakota

These are the 10 worst states to be unemployed:

  1. Mississippi
  2. Alabama
  3. Louisiana
  4. Arizona
  5. Virginia
  6. Tennessee
  7. Missouri
  8. Illinois
  9. Michigan
  10. Indiana

Click here to access 24/7 Wall St.’s rankings in their entirety, plus specific unemployment information for each state.

How did your state rank? Have you been unemployed before? Share your experiences below.

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