(WHDH) — More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economy, but some states are worse off than others.
In a recent study, WalletHub broke down the states with the biggest increases in unemployment by comparing claim increases for the week of March 23 to both the same week in 2019 and the first week of 2020 — and found New Hampshire was among the hardest-hit states.
Louisiana had the highest overall unemployment increase, with a 5,772.15 percent increase in 2020 compared to 2019, as well as a 5,800.48 percent increase in March versus January.
North Carolina had the second-highest increase, followed by Indiana, New Hampshire, and Florida.
Massachusetts, which had more than 180,000 people file for unemployment last week, ranked 14th overall, with a 4,779.06 percent increase in 2020 compared to 2019, and a 1,813.17 percent increase in March versus January.
Oregon had the lowest overall unemployment increase, followed by Connecticut, Wisconsin, Wyoming and West Virginia.
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