Ohioans File Fewest Jobless Claims Since Early March

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohioans filed 10,884 initial unemployment claims for the week ended April 16, marking the second straight week of declines.

That’s the fewest initial jobless claims filed in the state since 11,919 were filed the week ended March 5. It’s also down from an eight-week high of 17,662 filed the week ended April 2, but slightly more than the 10,799 filed the week ended Feb. 26.

Ohioans also filed 44,850 continued claims last week, which is down from the 50,520 filed the week ended March 9. The total number of traditional claims filed from April 10 to 16 was 55,734.

Ohio’s unemployment rate in March was 4.1%, compared to the national unemployment rate in March of 3.6%. Labor force participation in Ohio in March was 61.7%, compared to the national rate of 62.4%.

Pennsylvanians filed 10,790 initial jobless claims for the week ended April 9, according to the most recent data available from the Center for Workforce Information & Analysis. That’s up from the 9,288 claims reported the week prior. Continued claims in the commonwealth decreased to 83,101 for the week ended April 9 from 84,344 the week prior.

Nationally, applications for unemployment benefits inched down last week as the total number of Americans collecting aid fell to its lowest level in more than 50 years.

Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 184,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average of claims, which levels out week-to-week volatility, rose by 4,500 to 177,250.

About 1.42 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits in the week of April 9, the fewest since February 21, 1970.

Two years after the coronavirus pandemic plunged the economy into a brief but devastating recession, American workers are enjoying extraordinary job security. Weekly applications for unemployment aid, which broadly track with layoffs, have remained consistently below the pre-pandemic level of 225,000.

Last year, employers added a record 6.7 million jobs, and they’ve added an average of 560,000 more each month so far in 2022. The unemployment rate, which soared to 14.7% in April 2020 in the depths of the COVID-19 recession, is now just 3.6%, barely above the lowest point in 50 years. And there is a record proportion of 1.7 job openings for every unemployed American.

The U.S. job market and overall economy has shown remarkable resiliency despite ongoing supply chain breakdowns, the economic consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the highest consumer inflation in 40 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.