The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Thursday that the 1,499,712 jobless claims filed in the state in the last 17 weeks is more than the combined total of claims filed in the last three years.
Last week accounted for 35,422 jobless claim filings in Ohio. Additionally, 429,638 Ohioans filed continued jobless claims last week, which is 346,664 claims fewer than the claims’ peak earlier this year.
Of those unemployment applications, ODJFS reports that it has processed 94 percent and has about 6 percent pending.
In response, ODJFS has distributed over $5.2 billion in unemployment payments to over 747,000 Ohioans. It has also issued $4.1 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) payments to over 449,000 claimants.
Pandemic Unemployment Compensation funding, which come from the CARES Act in the form of an extra $600 a week in support, will end July 25 without Congressional approval to extend the program.
Nationally, initial unemployment claims for last week hit 1.3 million, which is 10,000 claims less than the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The department also reported that Americans receiving unemployment compensation totaled 17,338,000, which is down 422,000 from the previous week.