The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in an unemployment crisis on a scale not seen in modern U.S. history. Nearly every week since mid-March, initial jobless claims in the U.S. have topped 1 million — a threshold not previously reached since the Department of Labor began keeping records over half a century ago. 

Though it may take years to bring back the more than 12 million jobs that have been lost since January, the U.S. job market is showing signs of improvement. The unemployment rate stood at 10.2% as of July, down from a more than 70-year high of 14.7% in April 2020. In some U.S. cities, however, including several major economic hubs, jobs are returning at a much slower pace, if at all, and the unemployment crisis is far worse than it is nationwide. 

24/7 Wall St. reviewed seasonally adjusted unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the metropolitan area level to identify the cities with the worst unemployment problem.

All else being equal, the consequences of unemployment for the 13.6 million Americans who are out of work varies, depending on where they live. Some parts of the country have relatively strong social safety nets, providing residents who are out of work access to a range of benefits with few restrictions, while others provide relatively little help and for shorter times. Here is a look at the worst states in which to be unemployed. 

The current economic crisis is the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been nearly 6.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States to date, including over 178,000 deaths attributed to the virus. In addition to soaring unemployment, many of the metro areas on this list have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, reporting high caseloads per capita. Here is a look at the cities where COVID-19 is growing the fastest. 

Click here to see the cities with the worst COVID-19 unemployment crisis right now
Click here to read our methodology