In the past five weeks, roughly 26.5 million Americans have filed initial claims for unemployment benefits, according to the Department of Labor.
For the week ending April 18, 4.4 million applied — that’s down more than 800,000 from the 5.2 million the week before. And down more than 2 million from the two other weeks before that, during which 6.6 and 6.8 million people filed.
According to the national numbers, Ohio saw 108,801 people apply for unemployment for the week ending April 18 — which the DOL says was one of the nation’s largest decreases. That means the state is nearing 1 million out-of-work citizens.
Since March 15 we’ve lost about 1M jobs in Ohio. Nationally, that number is over 25M. It is projected nationally that unemployment may go to 20%. During the Great Recession: The highest unemployment rate was 10.9%. That seems reasonable compared to these other projections.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) April 22, 2020
So, are these decreases a good thing?
CNN says, “Roughly 16.2% of the US labor force is suffering from layoffs, furloughs or reduced hours during the coronavirus pandemic.” And that “even though the declines from week to week are somewhat encouraging, the data shows that much of the damage is already done.”
In Ohio — and across the country — there have also been issues with both applying for and receiving unemployment benefits.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said this is due to the rapid influx of claims as well as outdated technology at the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. Husted said during a press briefing on April 15 that they were working on fixing the issues.
For more information on the Ohio’s unemployment and expanded eligiablity due to the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, visit unemploymenthelp.ohio.gov/expandedeligibility.
This article appears in Apr 15 – May 5, 2020.
