IL Among 5 States With Most Unemployment Benefits Claims: Study

ILLINOIS — Illinois is among the five states with the highest rates of unemployment benefits claims in the country, according to a recent study.

AI productivity platform Plus analyzed U.S. Department of Labor data on unemployment insurance claims in each state between April 13 and April 20. The total claim number was measured against the number of eligible workers in every state to calculate the rate per 100,000 people, according to a news release about the study.

Illinois came in fourth on the list, with 1,852 claims per 100,000 eligible workers, the news release said. Out of nearly 5.92 million workers, there were 109,632 claims, which comes out to 1.85 percent of the working population.

New Jersey was first on the list, with 2.5 percent, followed by California with 2.31 percent and Rhode Island with 1.91 percent, according to the news release.

In fifth place, just behind Illinois, was Minnesota, with 1,845 claims per 100,000 eligible workers, the news release said.

Kansas had the lowest rate of unemployment benefit claims, with 325 per 100,000, or 0.33 percent of the working population, according to the news release.

“It’s interesting to see states from all corners of the US make the top ten. Neither the East nor West dominate the rankings which suggests that unemployment is experienced evenly across the country,” Daniel Li, CEO and cofounder of Plus, said in the news release.

“It’ll be curious to see if this balanced spread continues or if certain regions start to prevail in the future.”