COLUMBUS – In a sign of how uneven Ohio’s recovery from the pandemic-induced recession has been, the number of initial filings for unemployment ballooned by more than 50% during the first week of November.
Workers filed 11,232 first-time claims last week, 3,857 more than the previous week and a 59% increase over the pandemic-era low reached just two weeks earlier, according to data the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services provided to the U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday.
The number of continued claims last week was 10% higher than the week before and the total number of claims filed from Oct. 31 through Nov. was 16% higher than the previous week, an indication that Ohioans are finding work at a faster rate than they were being laid off.
Ohio’s unemployment rate in September was 5.4%, higher than the national rate of 4.8% and the state’s rate of recovery is about one-third that of the nation as a whole.
There are still more than 250,000 fewer jobs in the state than before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic shutdown, according to the progressive-leaning policy group Policy Matters Ohio.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to a new pandemic low of 267,000 last week, as the nation’s job market is recovering from the sharp coronavirus downturn.
The state reported last week that approximately 10% of the $5.4 billion in unemployment insurance overpayments made during the pandemic were the result of fraud, Department of Job and Family Services director Matt Damschroder said.
The number includes $42 million in overpayments in the traditional system and $454 million in fraud overpayments in the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program.
Through the end of October, the state paid more than $23.8 billion in benefits to more than 2.4 million claimants, Damschroder said.