While the COVID-19 vaccination rollout has allowed us to finally see a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s safe to say folks will still feel the aftershocks of the pandemic for the foreseeable future. For over a year now, COVID has caused job loss and shutdowns throughout the country, the consequences of which are still being felt.
According to a recent study by the personal finance website WalletHub, Ohio’s economy ranked the fourth worst in America for states whose economies were hit hardest by COVID, trailing behind Louisiana, Oklahoma and Hawaii.
The study used 13 metrics across two dimensions — “Highly Affected Industries & Workforce” and “Resources for Businesses to Cope Better with the Crisis” — to see which states were most impacted and which were “better positioned economically to deal with the coronavirus pandemic than others.”
Specific areas of evaluation included the current employment (or unemployment rate) for highly affected industries like arts and entertainment, food service, retail trade, etc.; the percent change in the number of open small businesses; and state fiscal condition index.
The states were individually ranked from 0-100 on each metric. WalletHub then compiled each state’s weighted average to come up with their list.
While Ohio ranked fourth worst overall, the state ranked:
- 21st for “GDP Generated by Highly Affected Industries as Share of Total State GDP”
- 2nd worst for “States Whose Unemployment Claims Are Recovering the Quickest” Score
- 10th for “Share of Workers Working from Home”
- 1st for “Share of Workers with Access to Paid Sick Leave” — which is not a good thing; Ohio does not have a paid sick leave law
- 26th for “State Rainy Day Funds as Share of State Expenditures”
Read the full results of the study here.
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2021.
