The number of Ohioans filing initial claims for unemployment compensation during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic jumped last week, according to state data released Thursday.
The latest figures show Ohioans filed 42,975 initial jobless claims for the week ending January 16, a 15% increase over the previous week, the Department of Job and Family Services said. Ohioans also filed 265,467 claims for continued unemployment, slightly down from previous weeks.
The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Ohio did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 7,438 new cases per day on January 6 to 6,113 new cases per day on January 20, according to an Associated Press analysis of data provided by The COVID Tracking Project.
Nationally, the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high, with 900,000 Americans applying for new benefits in the last week.
The 7-day rolling average of daily deaths in Ohio has risen over the past two weeks from 73 deaths per day on January 6 to 75 deaths per day on January 20, the data showed.
More than 450,000 Ohioans — or about 4% of the state’s population — have received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines since mid-December.
