Unemployment Benefits By State In Order Based on Percent Of State Population Receiving Benefits In Calendar Year 2015

Unemployment benefits paid by the US states and the District of Columbia, in order of percent of population that received benefits in 2015.

Basic data provided by AP. Calculations by me likely contain errors. I think the columns are self-explanatory when used in association with the story at the link. The "color of the state" is based on wiki data this date and "interpreted" by myself. Folks may disagree on the "color" of some of these states. For example, "emotionally" one might easily consider North Dakota a "red" state, but with a Democrat US senator and a GOP US senator, one might argue that North Dakota should be a "purple" state.

It is interesting that among the top ten states in the table below, there were only two red states: Alaska and North Dakota, both hit extremely hard by the downturn in the oil industry in 2015. The next two red states are West Virginia (coal) and Montana (coal, natural gas, and some oil). Texas, another huge oil state, is far down in the list suggesting the Texas economy is quite diversified.

State	Max Wks Benefit	State Population	Receiving Benefits 2015	Percent of State Population	Benefits Paid 2015	Average Per Recipient 2015	Percent of Un-employed Receiving Benefits	Color of State
AK	26	736,732	41,821	5.68	123,460,581	2,952	36.6	R
CT	26	3,597,000	184,853	5.14	712,468,042	3,854	39.1	B
NJ	26	8,938,000	446,526	5.00	2,089,483,818	4,679	41.8	B
DC	26	658,893	32,290	4.90	117,139,477	3,628	15.0	B
PA	26	12,790,000	601,762	4.70	2,262,784,886	3,760	43.2	B
ND	26	739,482	34,332	4.64	170,402,575	4,963	37.5	R
RI	26	1,055,000	48,869	4.63	160,437,411	3,283	32.9	B
MA	30	6,745,000	301,394	4.47	1,524,058,653	5,057	42.5	B
IA	26	3,107,000	134,661	4.33	422,378,832	3,137	36.3	B
WI	26	5,758,000	244,956	4.25	584,994,842	2,388	36.1	B
VT	26	626,562	25,362	4.05	73,059,734	2,881	38.7	B
WV	26	1,850,000	71,666	3.87	228,311,949	3,186	29.6	R
MT	28	1,024,000	39,564	3.86	108,636,802	2,746	38.9	R
CA	26	38,800,000	1,481,339	3.82	5,456,325,870	3,683	32.5	B
IL	26	12,880,000	491,362	3.81	1,861,952,303	3,789	31.0	B
OR	26	3,970,000	148,441	3.74	524,116,736	3,531	30.4	B
MN	26	5,457,000	200,247	3.67	779,169,999	3,891	40.6	B
NY	26	19,610,000	715,553	3.65	2,426,793,648	3,391	34.2	B
MI	20	9,910,000	361,114	3.64	826,572,215	2,289	26.2	B
WY	26	584,153	21,133	3.62	94,019,099	4,449	32.2	R
WA	26	7,062,000	252,331	3.57	1,009,052,759	3,999	27.6	B
NV	26	2,839,000	99,930	3.52	359,603,389	3,599	27.4	P
ME	26	1,330,000	45,308	3.41	117,992,637	2,604	29.0	B
AR	20	2,966,000	89,121	3.00	240,518,410	2,699	30.5	R
KS	16	2,904,000	85,404	2.94	339,150,250	3,971	24.9	R
ID	26	1,634,000	47,910	2.93	104,107,846	2,173	27.6	R
MO	13	6,064,000	173,056	2.85	337,601,309	1,951	21.6	R
DE	26	935,614	26,437	2.83	78,543,180	2,971	31.5	B
MD	26	5,976,000	167,668	2.81	574,118,089	3,424	26.2	B
OH	26	11,590,000	299,452	2.58	977,451,509	3,264	23.5	P
HI	26	1,420,000	34,456	2.43	157,488,120	4,571	30.5	B
CO	26	5,356,000	129,734	2.42	535,969,686	4,131	26.5	P
GA	14	10,100,000	242,935	2.41	420,882,157	1,732	13.9	R
TX	26	26,960,000	646,062	2.40	2,847,508,360	4,407	28.2	R
NM	26	2,086,000	49,057	2.35	189,277,313	3,858	21.8	B
KY	26	4,413,000	96,534	2.19	204,389,699	2,117	23.2	R
AL	26	4,849,000	101,557	2.09	204,977,602	2,018	18.2	R
IN	26	6,597,000	137,070	2.08	350,574,333	2,558	17.6	R
TN	26	6,549,000	133,539	2.04	279,141,953	2,090	14.8	R
NH	26	1,327,000	26,808	2.02	67,636,762	2,523	19.5	B
OK	26	3,878,000	78,332	2.02	344,855,622	4,402	26.8	R
NE	26	1,882,000	36,571	1.94	86,814,131	2,374	25.7	R
MS	26	2,994,000	55,390	1.85	102,871,141	1,857	17.3	R
UT	26	3,000,000	54,961	1.83	174,427,517	3,174	21.2	R
SC	20	4,832,000	86,055	1.78	156,610,923	1,820	12.7	R
AZ	26	6,731,000	115,804	1.72	290,381,061	2,508	16.9	R
LA	26	4,650,000	79,661	1.71	117,992,637	1,481	16.7	R
VA	26	8,326,000	130,514	1.57	405,356,456	3,106	15.2	R
NC	13	9,944,000	155,305	1.56	282,968,604	1,822	12.8	R
FL	12	19,890,000	269,764	1.36	518,071,340	1,920	12.0	P
SD	26	853,175	10,069	1.18	25,574,891	2,540	13.0	R

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A Note for the Granddaughters

It was an incredible evening of water polo for inter-league play. Among several games played today, the most important games were the two with St Marks School of Dallas. St Marks is an all-boy school and is generally considered the best team in the league in which our 12-year-old granddaughter plays. The St Marks school fields two teams, the "A" team and the "B" team. We can generally beat the "B" team but we "never" beat the "A" team. Until tonight.

The first game was at 5:30 p.m. this evening, our granddaughter's team vs St Marks "B" team. It was pretty evening matched from the standpoint of skill level, I suppose, but our team easily won 6 - 1.

The second game, at 6:15 p.m. was the "BIG" game. Our team was playing back-to-back, with no rest between games. The St Marks "A" team was playing after a 45-minute break and should have been well-rested. As expected, the St Marks team started off strong, and quickly led 2 - 0. It appeared that it was going to be a blow-out. Before the first half was over, when the score was 6 - 3, I mentioned to my daughter that our team was actually doing quite well, hanging in there at 6 - 3.

In the third period we moved to 6 - 5 and I was really, really surprised. In the fourth period, we tied at 6 - 6. Incredible. And then the go ahead score, making it 7 - 6. There was about 24 seconds left when we got the ball (the shot clock is 30 seconds, so essentially we only had to play "keep away" for 24 seconds).

All of a sudden, with either no seconds on the clock or very few seconds on the clock, a timeout was called by St Marks. After the timeout was over, for which I could not explain, our team got a penalty shot with four seconds on the board, and we scored, winning 8 - 6.

It was incredible that we won. Absolutely incredible. I asked our granddaughter what the deal was regarding the penalty shot with four seconds left in the game. It turns out the opposing coach with few or no seconds on the board asked for a timeout. The referee said "no" -- "no timeout." The St Marks coach was demanding and adamant, wanting a timeout, so the referee gave the St Marks team a timeout. It turns out that the St Marks team had no more timeouts left, and was penalized for asking for a timeout when they had none left. It was then that the referee put 4 seconds back on the clock (something I had not seen done before) and our team was given a penalty shot. The penalty shot was not needed, of course, we had already won 7 - 6, but this pretty much sealed the game with an exclamation mark.

The video below is of the first game, in which we easily won, to provide a "flavor" of the game. (Note: the St Marks pool is a small pool with a shallow end and a deep end. Normally, water polo is played in pools deep enough that one cannot stand on the bottom of the pool and continue to play with one's head above water. Obviously at the shallow end of a small pool, the goalie can stand fully upright. To make it fair, the teams switch goals each of the four periods.