More than 19 million Americans were still collecting unemployment compensation in mid-December, and there will continue to be elevated levels of unemployment long after the coronavirus is in the rear view mirror, said Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst.
“While the job market prospects for 2021 are brighter, it will take the first half of the year for that momentum to build,” he said.
About 28,790 people in Ohio filed new applications for unemployment benefits in the week ending Dec. 26, including 3,452 in Butler, Champaign, Clark, Greene, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties, according to state data.
Statewide, new jobless claims were down more than 7.5% from the prior week. In the local seven-county region, claims dropped more than 4%.
Five local counties saw declines, but claims increased more than 38% in Butler County to 1,051 and claims in Miami County rose 16% (+36).
The number of new weekly claims across Ohio has declined nearly 90% since hitting a record-shattering high in the last week in March (274,215), the state said.
But more people have filed for unemployment in the last 41 weeks, since the start of the coronavirus crisis, than in the last five years combined.
The state has distributed more than $7.6 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 881,000 Ohioans.
The state also has distributed as much in special pandemic unemployment assistance benefits to more than 809,000 Ohioans.
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