Ohio Unemployment Remains Steady in August

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Ohio continues to buck a national trend of job gains after the latest numbers from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services showed the state lost jobs in August.

According to figures released from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the state’s unemployment rate was unchanged from July to August at 4.5%. The labor force participation rate was also steady at 62.3%.

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DeWine: Ohio’s Unemployment Loan Repayment Helpful for Businesses

Mike DeWine

Ohio businesses should profit as the state completes paying off nearly a $1.5 billion loan it needed to cover unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Mike DeWine said.

DeWine announced Ohio began the process of repaying the U.S. Treasury Department using federal money from the American Rescue Plan. The action is expected to be completed Thursday. If the loan is not paid by Monday, the federal government would have charged the state 2.777% interest, which would mean higher unemployment taxes for employers.

“I am not willing to let our employers bear the unemployment debt burden caused by the pandemic,” DeWine said Wednesday. “By repaying this loan in full, we ensure that Ohio businesses won’t see increases in their federal unemployment payroll taxes.”

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Gov. DeWine Did a Number of Things to Address COVID-19 This Week

Governor Mike DeWine’s office released a review of the state’s COVID-19 status and response as well as a list of actions taken by the state.

The governor updated this week’s coronavirus numbers, which saw 69 counties remain at their current level of exposure, and Preble County being downgraded from a level 3 to a level 2. In other COVID-19 news, the state has it’s own dashboard for COVID tracking of children and schools in conjunction with the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and local health departments.

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Ohio Unemployment Drops by Nearly 60,000 from Prior Week

New unemployment claims in Ohio dropped last week by 5,963 from the prior week. For the week ending Aug. 8, 20,090 new unemployment claims were registered, compared to 26,053 new claims the week ending Aug. 1.

More Ohio workers also are dropping off the unemployment rolls overall. Advance unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 8 stood at 350,702, which is a drop of 58,621 claims from the prior week’s 409,323 claims.

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Adding Another 35,000 Claims Last Week, Ohio Unemployment Remains Above 425,000

Despite more than 35,000 new unemployment claims in Ohio last week, the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits dropped.

According to U.S. Department of Labor data, Ohio added 35,206 new unemployment claims in the week ending June 27. That’s 280 more than the previous week’s 34,926 new claims and brings the total number of unemployment claims in the state to 426,452, down 39,820 from the previous week’s 466,363 total number.

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Ohio House Unanimously Passes Bill Trying to Make Changes to the State’s Unemployment Compensation System

The Ohio House unanimously passed House Bill 614 on Thursday, which seeks to reform the state’s unemployment compensation system.

In the bill proposed by state Reps. Mark Fraizer (R-Newark) and Tracy Richardson (R-Marysville), it looks to modernize a system that was not prepared for the onslaught of unemployment claims this year.

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