May’s jobs report provided some encouraging news to American workers, as it showed the U.S. actually gained 2.5 million nonfarm payroll jobs. This demonstrates that the process of beginning to reopen states has had an impact, and many workers who were temporarily laid off while their employers remained closed are now being rehired. However, there are still 21 million Americans unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To identify which states’ workforces are experiencing the quickest recovery from COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three metrics. On the list of the most recovered states since the start of the COVID pandemic, Connecticut ranked as the most recovered followed by Oregon and Vermont. In the Midwest, Wisconsin was seventh and Iowa ranked 14th. On the other end of the recovery spectrum, Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma were at the very bottom of the list. According to statistics provided by Western Iowa Advantage, unemployment numbers locally were on the rise with Greene County leading the way at 8.5 percent unemployment, followed by Carroll County at 7.9. Crawford County unemployment stood at 7.6 percent and Calhoun at 7.3, Sac County at 5.6, Audubon at 5.3 and Ida County at 5 percent. In comparison, the nation’s total unemployment rate was reported at 13.3 percent. Total employment in the region fell from around 4,600 in May of 2019 to 3,700 in May of 2020. A link to the WalletHub data can be found below.
