COLUMBUS — For the week ending April 18, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported 109,369 initial jobless claims to the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
The number of initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the last five weeks stands at nearly 1 million (964,566). The economy was jolted in March when Gov. Mike DeWine closed all but “essential businesses” and issued a stay-at-home order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
To put that in perspective, the total for the last five weeks of claims is 249,054 more than the combined total of 715,512 for the last two years.
Over these last five weeks, ODJFS has distributed more than $926 million in unemployment compensation payments to more than 376,000 claimants.
ODJFS urges individuals to file their claims online, if possible, at unemployment.ohio.gov.
