Report: Ohio’s weekly unemployment recovery nearly worst in nation

(The Center Square) – Ohio continues to be one of the worst states in the U.S. for recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when it comes to jobless claims.

The Buckeye State ranked next to last in the county when comparing states’ unemployment claims since last week. It fares a little better, though, when examining job recovery since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, ranking 39th, according to a recently released study from personal finance website WalletHub.

The report examined all 50 states, along with the District of Columbia, regarding week-over-week changes in unemployment claims on March 15.

Ohio had the second-largest increase in claims from the week compared with 2019 and the fourth-largest compared with the start of 2020.

Ohio’s weekly unemployment claims increased by 1,049.64% compared with the same week in 2019, and they jumped 539.09% compared with the start of 2020. Claims are down 64.97% compared with the same week last year, but that decrease was the 13th-smallest in the country.

Despite the rankings, the state’s unemployment rate fell to 5% in February, 0.3 points higher than February 2020, according to the numbers from the U.S. Labor Department. The February jobless report, however, showed the loss of 8,600 private-sector jobs.

“Gains in leisure and hospitality jobs, which added 4,300 jobs, indicate that hotels are recovering and people are beginning to eat out again,” said Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute. “As more Ohioans are vaccinated and the weather improves, we should expect to see continued job growth in the leisure sector. Welcome news to an industry that has suffered so much job loss.”

Hederman praised state lawmakers for actions taken to help recovery but also cautioned efforts still need to be made.

“Ohio policymakers have taken a number of prudent steps that have helped the state recover from the pandemic and its economic impacts, but the work is not complete,” Hederman said. “Ohio can accelerate the economic recovery by wisely spending the billions in federal government assistance to aid those businesses hardest hit by the pandemic. Policymakers should also implement needed tax reforms that will reduce the tax burden on businesses so they are able to hire more workers.”

Nationally, there were 684,000 more new unemployment claims during the week of March 15 compared with the previous week, significantly fewer than the 6.9 million filed during the peak of the pandemic. Arkansas had unemployment claims for the week that were lower than before the pandemic.

Alabama, West Virginia and Georgia, however, had more claims than the same week from a year ago.

The most-recovered state from week over week was Arkansas, while New Hampshire is recovering better than any other state since the beginning of the pandemic. Only Virginia ranked below Ohio.

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