When it comes to the economy, it certainly looks like Montana is getting hit harder than our neighboring states like North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Don't stop there. When it comes to job losses- recent data shows that Montana is even worse than the national average.

CNBC featured a report recently which highlighted the jobless claims for each state. According to the report, the national average is "148 claims per 1,000 workers over the last five weeks." Montana is showing 155 jobless claims per 1,000 workers. Meanwhile, here's what the map shows for our neighbors:

North Dakota: 127

South Dakota: 61

Wyoming: 88

Idaho: 124

You can check out the full map by clicking here. Montana's jobless claims numbers were worse than nearly every other state in the Rocky Mountain West and Great Plains Region stretching from Canada down to Mexico.

 

This is also interesting news from another standpoint- why is Montana's economic data so much worse than North and South Dakota? As we told you earlier, Montana's governor is bragging that his more draconian measures like a statewide stay-at-home order helped keep our coronavirus numbers lower than our neighbors. But what he isn't telling you is that North and South Dakota have tested thousands more people, and also have the same low death counts from the coronavirus that Montana does (even though governors in those states didn't issue statewide stay-at-home orders.)

The jobless claims come on top of other bad economic news for Montana. As Peter Christian reports, a new study from The University of Montana Bureau of Business Economic Research (BBER) shows Montana losing $3.9 billion in income, and 50,000 jobs due to the coronavirus.

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