HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii ranked last in a new study on states whose unemployment rates are bouncing back.
WalletHub said they compared 50 states and the District of Columbia on five key metrics to find out which states are bouncing back the most and states that are bouncing back the least.
The three states that are bouncing back the most in terms of unemployment numbers are Nebraska, Utah and Oklahoma.
On the other end of the findings, the three states at the bottom of the list, bouncing back the least are New Jersey, Nevada and coming in last is Hawaii.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Hawaii has seen a decrease in their unemployment rate, but not by much.
They report in October 2021 the unemployment rate for Hawaii was 6.4 then in November of 2021 it went down to 6.0 and finally in December of 2021 it was at 5.7.
According to them before the pandemic the unemployment rate for Hawaii was between 2.1 – 2.8. Meaning Hawaii is taking longer to bounce back than other states.
WalletHub said nationwide the economy gained 199,000 non-farm payroll jobs compared to 249,000 the previous month.
WalletHub reported in December there were notable gains in work areas including leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, transportation, and warehousing, construction, and manufacturing.
In the U.S., the unemployment rate sits at 3.9%, WalletHub said. This is still higher than it was before the pandemic but is lower than the historic high of 14.7% in April 2020.
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They said the overall drop can be attributed to vaccination and states loosening restrictions.