Missoula Scores High in Recovering from COVID 19 Unemployment

The financial website Wallet Hub said in a recent survey that Missoula, Montana is the U.S. city with the 20^th best unemployment rate recovery in the month of July.

Analyst Jill Gonzalez explains Missoula’s ranking.

“Right now, Missoula ranks in the top 20 as far as cities whose unemployment rates are bouncing back most and this is certainly an ongoing report,” said Gonzalez. “We've been looking at this since mid May, essentially, and we really have seen a lot of improvement here specifically within Missoula and within a lot of the more Midwestern and mountain states, when it comes to recovering from unemployment.”

Gonzalez said all towns and cities in the U.S. suffered massive percentages of unemployment, but that Missoula’s was simply less catastrophic than other cities.

Right now, Missoula ranks in the top 20 as far as cities whose unemployment rates are bouncing back most and this is certainly an ongoing report,” said Gonzalez. “We've been looking at this since mid May, essentially, and we really have seen a lot of improvement here specifically within Missoula.

“We're looking at unemployment right now, and Missoula has seen about a 160% increase, and that's obviously quite a lot,” she said. “But most cities have seen some type of increase, but just to compare and contrast, Fargo, North Dakota has seen over a 200% increase and looking further out for instance, Miami, Florida has seen a 500% increase in unemployment.”

In addition, Wallet Hub has provided helpful information for anyone whose credit rating has been damaged by the pandemic.

“If your credit has already taken a hit, then right now you want to stop the bleeding because the lower that score goes, even if it just takes a couple weeks or a couple of months to dip, it takes at least a year or probably more to recover,” she said. “During that time, you're not going to be a great candidate for anything, such as new loans, new credit cards, you'll have high interest rates on both, and even for jobs in the future, employers are looking at things like credit reports.”

Gonzalez provided some common sense tips to repair an ailing credit score.

“You want to stop the bleeding, and the best way to do that is to talk to your creditors, specifically your loan and your credit card companies because they can help you out here,” she said. “They can possibly waive late fees, they can decrease your interest rate for the time being, and if you have incurred debt, hopefully won't be racking up as much interest on it, and I think most importantly, they can set up a payment plan for you to help reestablish your good credit.”

To view the full report, click here.

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