COLUMBUS – The number of Ohioans filing first-time claims for unemployment compensation benefits inched upward again during the week that ended on July 11, indicating that Ohio’s economic restart is still moving slowly.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family reported that 35,422 Ohioans filed initial jobless claims last week to the U.S. Dept. of Labor today.
Although 1,939 more than the previous week, that is still nearly 240,000 fewer than the peak reached in late March and early April as employers shuttered businesses and Ohioans retreated to their homes under state health directives to reduce the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Ohioans filed a total of 429,638 continued jobless claims last week, which were 346,664 fewer than the peak earlier this year. That number has been steadily decreasing over the past several months as more workers head back to their jobs.
The nearly 1.5 million initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the last 17 weeks is more than the combined total of those filed during the last three years, the department said.
The number of laid-off workers across the U.S. seeking unemployment benefits remained stuck at 1.3 million last week, an historically high level that indicates many companies are still cutting jobs as the viral outbreak intensifies.
The elevated level of applications for jobless aid is occurring as new confirmed cases of coronavirus are spiking across much of the Sunbelt, threatening to weaken the economic recovery.
Case counts are rising in 40 states, including Ohio, and 22 states have either paused or reversed their efforts to reopen their economies, according to Bank of America.
Ohio has paid out more than $5.2 billion in unemployment compensation during that period to more than 747,000 workers, about 94% of the applications the agency has received.
The department has issued more than $4.1 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments to more than 449,000 PUA claimants who are historically ineligible for unemployment benefits.
The PUA funding from the federal CARES Act is scheduled to expire July 25. Without Congressional authorization to extend it, those extra $600 weekly payments will come to an end.