COLUMBUS – While the number of Ohioans filing for initial jobless benefits increased for the fourth straight week, the number of those filing continuing claims continues to drop, which could mean that employers are hiring, but also that workers have stopped looking for jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weight down the economy.
The 20,090 first-time claims for unemployment benefits filed last week was 8% more than the week before, though it is a fraction of those filed during the height of the economic shutdown, according to statistics the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported to the U.S. Dept. of Labor Thursday.
Ohioans filed 287,049 continued jobless claims, which is 4% fewer than the week before and less than half of the number during the peak.
A total of 1.77 million Ohioans have filed initial jobless claims over the last 30 weeks since businesses were closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus in March and April.
The number of workers seeking unemployment benefits nationwide rose last week to 898,000, a historically high number that is evidence that layoffs remain a hindrance to the recovery.
The economy is still roughly 10.7 million jobs short of recovering all the 22 million jobs that were lost when the pandemic struck in early spring.