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More than 1 million laid-off workers in Ohio and roughly 30.3 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits as stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of COVID-19 have locked up the economy.
Last week in Ohio, 92,920 people filed claims, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Thursday. That's down 15 percent from the 109,369 claims filed the week ending April 18, but enough to push the total in Ohio to 1,057,486.
And according to a U.S. Department of Labor report, another 3.8 million unemployed workers in the U.S. sought benefits last week as employers continued to close their doors and cut their workforces in what is by far the worst string of layoffs on record.
The claims in Ohio have far surpassed the totals for 2018 and 2019 combined -- 715,512. The state has paid more than $1.45 billion to more than 481,000 claimants so far.
In the Mahoning Valley, Trumbull and Mahoning counties saw their claims numbers rise last week.
In Trumbull County, 1,713 claims were filed, up from 1,665 the prior week, and Mahoning County had 2,075 claims, up from 2,003.
In the U.S., the 3.8 million claims were down 603,000 from the previous week, putting the four-week moving average through April 25 at 5.03 million, down from 5.7 million, Gus Faucher, chief economist for Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, said.
"Although initial claims are gradually slowing, they remain extremely elevated. In early March, before the coronavirus started to hit the U.S. labor market, initial claims were slightly above 200,000 per week," Faucher said. "Over the course of three weeks they skyrocketed to almost 7 million per week in late March and early April. This was almost 10 times the previous all-time high of just below 700,000 in 1982.
"Claims have since fallen by about 45 percent from their peak in the week ending March 28, but are still astronomical. Over the past six weeks claims have totaled more than 30 million, or about 18 percent of the pre-coronavirus labor force," Faucher said.
He predicts the April jobs report that will be released May 8 will be the worst in history with unemployment above 10 percent.
Some economists forecast the rate for April could go as high as 20 percent. That would be the highest rate since it reached 25 percent during the Great Depression.
Some outside reviews suggest the number of job losses is likely even higher than is captured in the weekly unemployment claims. A poll by two academic economists, Alexander Bick and Adam Blandin, found the U.S. economy may have lost 34 million jobs since mid-March, when the coronavirus shutdowns began.
A key reason for that emerges from a survey by the Economic Policy Institute. It found that up to 12 million more people have lost jobs but haven't filed a claim for benefits, either because they couldn't get through their state's overwhelmed system or they didn't try, perhaps because it was too difficult.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
rselak@tribtoday.com