What lies ahead? New unemployment claims decreased by 7.3% week-over-week on March 27 despite high inflation and the threat of a recession. WalletHub just released updated rankings for the States Where Unemployment Claims Are Decreasing the Most, and Tennessee is #12 of the 50 states. By the way, neighboring Kentucky was in the #1 position of enjoying the greatest decrease in unemployment.

The U.S. has reduced unemployment from record highs during the COVID-19 pandemic back to historic lows. Now, however, high inflation and the looming threat of a recession could cause unemployment claims to spike once more.

Here's more encouraging news from WalletHub, every state had unemployment claims last week that were lower than in the previous week except for Louisiana, Utah, Colorado, Alaska, Arkansas, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Illinois, Oregon and Indiana. Wyoming has recorded no change.

There is still concern that we may see a recession.

WalletHub Analyst Jill Gonzalez noted,  "A potential recession would negatively affect unemployment significantly. Losing a job is never good, but when you combine it with such high inflation it can really become disastrous. Even Americans with jobs right now are struggling to afford essentials like food and gas. If those numbers would climb while more people become unemployed, we might see an economy in deep recession.”

To view the full report on the rankings of all states, please visit:https://wallethub.com/edu/states-unemployment-claims/72730.