COLUMBUS – The number of Ohioans filing for first-time unemployment benefits continued to decline last week, indicating the massive job drain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic might be slowing down as the state’s economy slowly reopens, but the number of workers who have lost their jobs in the last two months is still higher than the total of the last three years combined.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services urges individuals to file their claims online.
Those without internet access can call 1-877-644-6562 (OHIO-JOB) from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. weekdays, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Sundays
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported 51,125 initial jobless claims to the U.S. Department of Labor for the first week of May, 16 percent fewer than the week before, but the total number of initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the last eight weeks has climbed to 1.17 million.
The state says 90 percent of those applicants has been processed and the ODJFS has distributed more than $2.4 billion in benefits to more than 587,000 people
Nearly 3 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week as the viral outbreak led more companies to slash jobs even though most states, including Ohio, have begun to let some businesses reopen under certain restrictions.
Roughly 36 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the two months since the coronavirus first forced millions of businesses to close their doors and shrink their workforces, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Still, the number of first-time applications has now declined for six straight weeks, suggesting that a dwindling number of companies are reducing their payrolls.
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It looks like fewer people will be on Ohio’s roads for the Memorial Day weekend compared to years past, thanks to the coronavirus outbreak that has shut down the economy in the state and across the rest of the country.
The Ohio Department of Transportation reported that traffic volumes have started to ease back upward after bottoming out in mid-April, but the auto club AAA says traffic was still down 40.8 percent compared to the same week last year.
The low point for Memorial Day travel since the auto club began keeping records came in 2009, during the Great Recession, when less than 31 million Americans – fewer than 1.2 million Ohioans among them – traveled at least 50 miles from home.
With social distancing guidelines still in practice, travel volume this year is likely to set a record low. said Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel.