by J.D. Davidson
Ohio was just one of four states that saw unemployment claims rise the last week of June compared to a year ago, according to a recently released report from WalletHub.
And, Ohio is the next-to-last state to recover from unemployment during the same week compared to a year ago, the report from the personal finance website showed.
“Ohio has the second slowest unemployment claims recovery. It registered an increase in the past week in the number of unemployment insurance initial claims of over 100% compared to pre-pandemic levels, and more specifically the same week of 2019. The state also has almost 13% more unemployment claims compared to the same week of last year,” WalletHub Analyst Jill Gonzalez said.
Only Indiana trailed Ohio as the worst state in terms of recovery, and only Ohio, New Jersey, Mississippi and Michigan had unemployment claims during the final week of June that were worse than last year.
The report showed there are currently 6 million Americans unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in total.
Another WalletHub report released Monday ranking the most- and least-stressed financial cities across the country listed two Ohio cities in the top 10, four in the top 21 and five in the top 50.
Cleveland ranked as the most-stressed in the country, ranking first in financial stress and second in both family and health and safety stress.
Toledo ranked 10th, followed by Akron at 16th, Cincinnati at 21st and Columbus at 47th.
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An Ohio native, J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He has served as a reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher. Davidson is a regional editor for The Center Square.
