COLUMBUS – The number of Ohioans filing initial claims for unemployment benefits declined for the second straight week, continuing a hopeful trend that suggests that the state’s economy is slowly returning to normal following a shutdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported that 27,937 workers filed first-time jobless claims during the week of July 25. That is 7% fewer than the week before and 246,278 fewer than the peak number earlier this year.
Ohioans filed 423,452 continued jobless claims last week, which were 352,850 fewer than the peak, when 1.6 million people were thrown out of work by wholesale business closings and stay-at-home orders.
Over the last 19 weeks, the state has distributed more than $5.7 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 764,000 Ohioans and more than $4.7 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments to more than 492,000 PUA claimants who traditionally do not qualify for unemployment benefits.
More than 1.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.
The continuing wave of job cuts is occurring against the backdrop of a spike in virus cases that has led many states to halt plans to reopen businesses and has caused millions of consumers to delay any return to traveling, shopping and other normal economic activity.
The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter — by far the worst quarterly plunge ever — when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%, the government said Thursday.