COLUMBUS – For the second week in a row, the number of Ohioans filing initial unemployment claims increased, a sign that the state’s recovery from the coronavirus shutdown that idled many businesses may be losing steam.
According to statistics the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, 16,294 initial jobless claims were filed last week, 3% more than the week before. It was the second straight weekly increase, during which time the number of workers filing for first-time benefits grew by 10%.
The number of Ohioans filing for continuing claims, a measure of how many workers remain idled, grew by a little over 200 but remains 6% lower than on Sept. 12, the agency said.
A total of 1.7 million Ohioans have filed for initial jobless claims since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits declined last week to a still-high 837,000, suggesting that companies are still cutting a historically high number of jobs.
The weekly numbers have become less reliable as states have increased their efforts to root out fraudulent claims and process earlier applications that have piled up.
The state health department Thursday reported 1,327 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 for a total of 155,314 with 4,817 deaths. There are 16,281 active cases.
The state positivity rate rose back above 3% this week, Gov. Mike DeWine said during his regular televised coronavirus briefing.
Delaware County was downgraded from Level 3 on the state’s four-tiered Public Health Advisory System to Level 2 (see map).