COLUMBUS – The number of Ohioans filing for unemployment benefits dropped last week but remains above the pandemic-era low set two months ago.
The 10,135 initial claims filed last week was 21.7% lower than the week before but nearly 2,000 more than the number filed the week that ended Aug. 21, according to data the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services sent to the U.S Department of Labor Thursday.
The number of initial claims for benefits are an indication of the rate that workers are being laid off by employers and have dropped three of the past four weeks.
Ohioans filed 108,100 continued traditional unemployment claims last week, 20% lower than the eight-week average.
The total number of traditional claims filed during the week that ended Sept. 25 was 118,235, a 69% decline since Sept. 4, when the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program ended and continued claims began to be included in the number of traditional claims.
Ohio’s unemployment rate in August was 5.4%.
Nationwide, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the third straight week, a sign that the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 may be slowing the job market’s recovery.
Since topping 900,000 in early January, applications have mostly fallen steadily as the economy bounces back from last year’s shutdowns. But they’ve risen recently as coronavirus cases tick up again.