COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in April at 4.7% as employers try to bring in enough workers to staff businesses that are trying to return to their normal operations after more than a year of pandemic-induced shutdowns.
Employers in the state shed 3,700 jobs over the month, indicating that the path to recovery will not be smooth or straight.
There were 5.3 million Ohioans working last month, according to data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The number of unemployed has declined by 636,000 – or 70% — from 909,000 in April 2020, when the unemployment rate was 16.4% but approximately 273,000 of the jobs lost in the early weeks of the pandemic have not been recovered.
Fewer Americans sought unemployment aid last week — the latest encouraging sign for the rebounding U.S. economy — just as Republican-led states are moving to cut off a federal benefit for the jobless.
Twenty-three states, from Ohio to Texas, Georgia and Iowa, plan to begin blocking a $300-a-week federal payment for the unemployed starting in June.
Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine and Sen. Rob Portman believe the extra payments are holding back the recovery by making it harder for employers to lure workers back off the sidelines.
“When combined with the state unemployment benefits, [they have] created a situation where more than 40 percent of workers can make more staying home than they would earn returning to work,” Portman said.
DeWine has said the state will stop taking the federal funds for the extra payments on June 26.
The number of Ohioans filing first-time unemployment claims 12% last week from the week before.