Alabama And Mississippi Unemployment Numbers Released For The Week of August 15

Today, new numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor show that 1.1 million people across the country filed initial claims for unemployment benefits last week after just dropping below 1 million in the first week of August, for the first time since March.

Last week, 6,096 unemployment claims were filed in Mississippi and 10,532 in Alabama.

When comparing the number of claims filed in the first week of August to the number of unemployment claims filed, last week, 644 more claims were filed in Mississippi, and Alabama’s unemployment claims were up by 1,065.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, released a study today, ranking states whose unemployment claims are recovering the quickest. When ranking states whose unemployment claims have recovered the most since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, with #1 being the most recovered, Mississippi ranked 40 out of fifty states and the District of Columbia , and Alabama has been ranked at #32.

The study also provided insight on the change in unemployment claims filed between March and August, since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, in comparison to those filed during those same months in 2019. This comparison shows an uptick of 1315.04% claims filed in Alabama and 1542.92% in Mississippi.

The U.S. Department of Labor continues to release data on the number of unemployment claims filed across the county and in each individual state on Thursday each week.