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Ohio's new unemployment claims top 855,000 in last 4 weeks

These jobless claims have been higher in one month than the previous two years combined.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The coronavirus impact on Ohio jobs has been historic.

New jobless claims throughout the state have hit 855,197 throughout the last four weeks, according to data released Thursday morning from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. This includes 158,678 new claims for the week ending April 11.

To put that in perspective, the last four weeks brought more initial jobless claims than the 715,512 reported during the last two years combined. State officials also say more than $227 million in unemployment compensation has been paid to more than 271,000 Ohioans within the last four weeks.

With this increase in unemployment applications, many have experienced a delay in the process.

"All eligible Ohioans will receive their unemployment benefits -- and any delays in processing their claims will not reduce the amount received," ODJFS officials said in a press release. "ODJFS will not rest until all eligible Ohioans are served."

If you're filing for unemployment, here's what you need to know:

  • You can file online HERE.
  • You can file by calling 1-877-644-6562 (OHIO-JOB) from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays.
  • If your job loss is a result of the coronavirus, you should enter 2000180 as the mass-layoff number while filing your unemployment application. If you have already submitted claims without this number, you do NOT need to add it.

"Each claim is important to us, and we recognize the hardship that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on many Ohio families," ODJFS officials said. "We are hiring more people, working longer hours and adding more technological capacity so that we can serve Ohioans as quickly as possible. We have extended our call center to a seven-day-a-week operation and have nearly 1,200 staff taking calls with plans to launch a virtual call center by the end of next week."

Nationally, the U.S. saw 5.2 million new jobless claims for the week ending April 11, bringing the total to roughly 22 million in the last month.

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