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WalletHub: Vast majority of states are getting hit harder than Illinois

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Illinois

* I missed this last week…

While Americans have started to receive their government stimulus payments, those who are jobless will likely still struggle. However, not all states have experienced the same levels of unemployment due to the pandemic. To identify which states’ workforces have been hurt most by COVID-19, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on increases in unemployment claims. We used this data to rank the most impacted states in both the latest week for which we have data (April 13) and overall since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis (March 16). Read on for the results

Illinois ranked 43rd of 51 for the week-to-week impact and 44th in overall impact. The top ten most impacted states included Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana and Florida. Some of that can be explained by the complete collapse of automobile manufacturing and its radiating effects.

* But, as I’ve noted before, you’d think Illinois’ early stay at home order would’ve hurt us more. It doesn’t appear to have done so, partly because people are essentially voting with their feet and staying home no matter what their state government says…

According to Google’s mobility reports, Florida is actually outperforming the US average on every metric of social distancing the tech company is tracking. Retail visits are down 49 percent (45 percent across the US). Trips to grocery stores and pharmacies have dropped 20 percent (7 percent US average), and people are going to parks less (down 54 percent versus 16 percent nationwide).

Illinois also has a history of being late to and emerging from recessions. And we don’t have a good comparison about how Illinois stacks up against other states as far as processing unemployment claims goes.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 28, 20 @ 12:16 pm

Comments

Old people are old for a reason.

Florida residents smart enough to avoid opportunities to get the virus and die.

Comment by don the legend Tuesday, Apr 28, 20 @ 12:27 pm
Like Don the Legends comment,
“Old People are old for a reason”.

Comment by Back to the Future Tuesday, Apr 28, 20 @ 12:47 pm
My favorite quote from my grandma’s old neighbor: “Getting old isn’t for pantywaists.” She was a tough old bird.

Comment by Jibba Tuesday, Apr 28, 20 @ 12:57 pm
If this isn’t a lack of data issue by state and an actual reflection of the biggest unemployment increases by state due to Covid-19, then Moody’s needs to revise their negative rating targeted at Illinois due to Covid-19 immediately.

Comment by Biker Tuesday, Apr 28, 20 @ 1:20 pm
As much as I disagree with the governor in the length of the shutdown it’s also clear that Illinois has not taken as extreme efforts as other states. Construction projects for example are still ongoing both public sector and private. It’s amazing looking at videos of empty streets in major cities. Down here the local traffic is almost the same as pre-lockdown, just missing the school buses and school time traffic.

As more and more law enforcement officers make clear there’s not going to be any enforcement of the governor’s constitutionally questionable orders limiting civil liberties. They’re recommending social distancing but not economic shutdowns. If the public health department orders a quarantine and gets a court order they will enforcement race that.

The consent of the governed is a bedrock of our democratic system. That consent is being slowly withdrawn.

Comment by Downstate Illinois Tuesday, Apr 28, 20 @ 1:32 pm
Back when Illinois lagged going into and out of a recession, it was more of an industrial state; I’m not ignoring agriculture, but it didn’t employ vast amounts of people by comparison. Manufacturing had dropped in Illinois long before now.

Today Illinois is more of a service economy, with restaurants (and bars) being one of the bigger service sectors. Not to downplay the effects, but a lot of restaurants either already did take-out or they have quickly figured out how to do take-out, so the food industry had a bit softer landing.

Comment by RNUG Tuesday, Apr 28, 20 @ 2:20 pm