Another record-breaking spike in U.S. jobless claims hit Americans across the country, but varied in impact by state as each governor takes a different tact in slowing the spread of COVID-19.

Claims for state unemployment benefits were most concentrated in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Washington state and Massachusetts with claims of 73, 62, 50, 47 and 47 per 1,000 workers, respectively. The data is for jobless filings through the end of last week.

Those were the states that saw the most intense surges in claims when controlling for differences in the size of each state’s labor force.

Nevada, New Jersey, California and Vermont also saw some of the most concentrated bumps in unemployment filings, according to the unadjusted Labor Department data.

Looking at absolute unemployment unadjusted for state population, California came out highest with more than 878,000 workers filing for benefits, up 692,000 from the prior week’s …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]