COLUMBUS – For the eighth week in a row, the number of Ohioans continuing to claim unemployment benefits has declined as the state’s economy slowly emerges from its pandemic-related shutdown.
ODJFS urges individuals to file their unemployment claims online, if possible
Ohioans filed 314,744 fewer continued unemployment claims last week compared to the peak in April.
For the week ending June 20, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported 34,553 initial jobless claims, 87 percent fewer than in March when the shutdown first triggered a four-week wave of business closings and layoffs.
The statewide unemployment rate fell 3.9% in May to 13.7% from 17.6% in April.
The number of laid-off workers who applied for unemployment benefits across the nation fell to 1.48 million last week, the 12th straight drop and a sign that layoffs are slowing but are still at a painfully high level.
The steady decline in claims suggests that the job market has begun to heal from the pandemic, which shuttered businesses and sent the unemployment rate up to 14.7% in April, its highest level since the Great Depression.
Yet the latest figure also coincides with a sudden resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the United States, especially in the South and West, that’s threatening to derail a nascent economic rebound.
The 1.4 million Ohio workers who have filed of initial jobless claims over the last 14 weeks is more than the total number filed in the state during the last three years.
During that period the state has distributed more than $4.4 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 716,000 claimants and another $2.8 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments to more than 332,000 claimants, such as self-employed and freelance workers who traditionally do not qualify for jobless benefits.