The Rundown

Ohio unemployment more than 1 million over the last six weeks

By: David DeWitt - April 30, 2020 7:42 am

Illustration by iStock / Getty Images Plus.

Ohio has seen more than one million jobless claims filed over the last six weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Thursday morning.

The department reported 92,920 initial jobless claims to the U.S. Dept. of Labor this past week. The number of initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the last six weeks stands at 1,057,486, a release said.

“To put that in perspective, the total for the last six weeks of claims is 341,974 more than the combined total of 715,512 for the last two years,” the release added.

Over these last six weeks, ODJFS has distributed more than $1.45 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 481,000 claimants, it said.

ODJFS urges individuals to file their claims online, if possible, at unemployment.ohio.gov.

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David DeWitt

OCJ Editor-in-Chief and Columnist David DeWitt has been covering government, politics, and policy in Ohio since 2007, including education, health care, crime and courts, poverty, state and local government, business, labor, energy, environment, and social issues. He has worked for the National Journal, The New York Observer, The Athens NEWS, and Plunderbund.com. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and is a board member of the E.W. Scripps Society of Alumni and Friends. He can be found on Twitter @DC_DeWitt