COLUMBUS – The number of Ohioans filing initial jobless claims fell again last week, but by a scant 0.08%, suggesting that nearly six months after the eruption of the coronavirus, the economy is still struggling to sustain a recovery and rebuild a job market that was devastated by the recession caused by the shutdown caused by the pandemic.
Ohioans filed 18,719 first-time claims, according to statistics the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported to the U.S. Dept. of Labor today. That was 255,496 fewer than the peak reached earlier this year as businesses closed and employers laid off workers in large numbers but only 169 fewer than the previous week.
The number of laid-off Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a still-elevated 881,000 last week, evidence that the viral pandemic keeps forcing many businesses to slash jobs. In the previous week, more than 1 million had sought jobless aid.
All told, the government said that 13.3 million people are continuing to receive traditional jobless benefits, up from 1.7 million a year ago. Ohio workers filed 339,957 continued jobless claims last week.
The state reported 1,345 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Thursday for a total of 127,112 with 4,226 deaths and 16,791 active cases.