For the week ending May 23, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported 42,082 initial jobless claims to the U.S. Dept. of Labor.
The number of initial jobless claims filed in Ohio over the last 10 weeks, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to a state-ordered shutdown of non-essential businesses, has risen to 1,257,838, more than the combined total of those filed during the last three years.
For the month of April, the unemployment rate was 17.4 percent as the jobless rate increased in all 88 counties. Logan County had the highest county rate at 30.1 percent while Lorain was second at 25.6 and Erie County was third at 25.5 percent.
Holmes County’s jobless rate was 6.5 percent, the lowest in Ohio.
In north central Ohio, Crawford County had the highest jobless rate for April, hitting 24 percent, the fourth-highest county unemployment rate in the state.
The jobless rate in Richland County during April was 20.3 percent, 21st highest in the state.
Ashland County (12.6 percent) and Knox County (12.4 percent) ranked among the six counties with the lowest jobless rates in April.
During the last 10 weeks, ODJFS has distributed more than $3.1 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 644,000 claimants. Of the more than 1 million applications the agency has received, nearly 93 percent have been processed, with about 7 percent pending.
In addition, ODJFS has issued more than $647 million in PUA payments to more than 109,000 claimants.
