Unemployment claims by state

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A visualization of unemployment insurance claims by state, adjusted for population.

The number of people filing for unemployment insurance each week is a useful indicator of the state of the economy. I present this data for each state and the nation in an interactive visualization.

Because states vary widely in population (the most populous state has 68 times the population of the least populous), I’ve cast the data as claims per thousand residents of each state.

When an unemployed worker files a claim for the first time, that is counted as an initial claim. Claims by workers after the initial claim are counted as continued claims.

To learn more about this data and to access the visualization, click here.

Example from the visualization. Click for larger.