US

STUDY: Democratic States Are Recovering Better Than Republican States Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Tami Chappell/AFP via Getty Images

Font Size:

The U.S. economy is beginning to recover as states cautiously loosen their coronavirus restrictions, allowing many people to go back to work after several months of unemployment.

A study by WalletHub published Thursday compared the number of unemployment claims filed in each state and the District of Columbia to determine which were recovering the fastest. Oregon topped the list for the states that recovered the most since the previous week and was ranked second out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia in recovery since the pandemic began.

Since the start of the pandemic, Connecticut has seen the most unemployment claim recovery, followed by Oregon, New Jersey, Vermont, and Arkansas. The top 5 states who recovered the most since the previous week are Oregon, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. (RELATED: Atlanta Mayor Admits Georgia Reopening Was ‘Not As Bad As I Thought That It Would Be’)

Georgia is struggling the most with economic recovery. Despite being one of the first states to start reopening in April, Georgia is ranked 51 in overall economic recovery and 50 in recovery since last week. Kentucky, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and Florida join Georgia to make up the 5 states that have recovered the least since the pandemic essentially started. Alaska, Florida, Virginia, Georgia, and Louisiana were the 5 states that saw the least economic recovery since last week.

Source: WalletHub

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced that Georgia was lifting coronavirus restrictions beginning April 24, a move that President Donald Trump said at one time was “too soon.” A week later, Georgia’s businesses were beginning to come back to life, with data showing increases in the number of people visiting salons, gyms, and restaurants.

Regardless, the state still struggled to get its economy back on track. Politico called Georgia a “reopening reality check,” reporting May 21 that jobs weren’t “flooding back” and that data still showed steady unemployment claims in the state.

Some states paused reopening efforts after new outbreaks were reported.

Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced June 11 that the state was pausing reopening for 7 days after a spike in new cases.

“Think of it as a statewide ‘yellow light,'” Brown said in a tweet.

“This one-week pause will give public health experts time to assess what factors are driving the spread of the virus,” she added. “I will use the data we see in the next week to determine whether to lift this pause or extend it.”

Brown announced June 30 that she was extending Oregon’s COVID-19 state of emergency for 60 days.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbot also announced late last month that his state was pausing reopening. Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations had surged since reopening, the governor said. “The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses.”

Texas is ranked 23rd in recovery since the start of the pandemic, but dropped down to 46 when looking at recovery since last week, the study found.

WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said in a press release that pausing reopening would likely not lead to a surge of new unemployment claims unless businesses are closed back down. However, she noted, “we will likely see a slowdown in job growth because people who are temporarily laid off in certain non-essential sectors will have to wait longer to get back to work.”

The U.S. added 4.8 million jobs in the previous month and unemployment claims are down 81% from their peak, according to the WalletHub report.

Many people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic found that they were able to return to work once their states reopened the economy. However, there are still 17.8 million Americans who remain unemployed due to the pandemic.

Coronavirus has eliminated all the new jobs gained since the great recession, the WalletHub study found.



Source: WalletHub

The unemployment-claims recovery in Democratic states is doing better than the recovery in Republican states, data showed. The average ranking for Blue states was 24.9 out of 51, and Red states averaged 26.77 out of 51.

Gonzalez said that most job losses from the pandemic are not permanent. A job report from May showed that 15.3 million people were on a temporary layoff compared to 2.9 million who suffered a permanent job loss, she noted.

“Most jobless Americans expect to be rehired by their former employers, but exactly how soon that can happen will depend on both how quickly states are able to reopen and how safe the government and businesses can make customers feel,” Gonzalez added. “For example, mandatory COVID-19 testing before entering an airport could significantly alleviate people’s concerns about flying again.”

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel