The U.S. is slowly making strides towards economic recovery amidst the coronavirus pandemic: The unemployment rate is steadily decreasing, and with an estimated 42% of the population vaccinated as of June 7, consumers are gaining back confidence in the safety of resuming 'normal' activities.

Source: Statista

To highlight just how important the vaccine rollout is to economic recovery, Daraius Irani, vice president, division of strategic partnerships and applied research at Towson University, told WalletHub that "Achieving herd immunity will allow the businesses such as restaurants/bars, hotels, sporting venues, stadiums, and any business that supports large in-person events to resume operations. Just as important, if households feel safe, they will patronize these businesses. Re-opening the business is one thing; having customers is just as important." However, the progress from coast to coast has not been uniform, and some states are taking longer to recover from COVID-19 than others. To determine the states with the most and least successful recoveries, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three dimensions: COVID health, leisure & travel, and economy & labor market. The personal finance website then evaluated those dimensions using 21 metrics; each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of recovery. WalletHub then assigned each state with a total score as well as separate ranks in each category, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions Find out the states that are recovering the slowest from the COVID-19, according to WalletHub, in the slideshow above. Read more: |

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