Staff report

The state witnessed a slight bump in initial unemployment claims while continued unemployment claims dropped, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Thursday.

Ohioans filed 4,482 initial unemployment claims last week, which was 126 more than the previous week. During the same period, Ohioans filed 41,353 continued unemployment claims, which was 800 fewer than the previous week.

The total number of claims filed from Sept. 21 through Sept. 27 was 45,835.

The state unemployment rate in August was 5%. The national unemployment rate in August was 4.3%. Ohio’s labor force participation rate in August was 62.5%. The national labor force participation rate in August was 62.3%.

Mahoning County’s unemployment rate in August was 5.7% with 6,000 of the county’s 105,200 labor force out of work. In Trumbull County, 5,600 out of 89,800 workers were unemployed for a 6.2% rate.