Staff report

Ohioans filed 46,114 unemployment claims Sept. 28 through Oct. 4, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Thursday.

Initial unemployment claims for the period numbered 5,159 last week, 677 more than the previous week. Continued unemployment claims were 40,955, 398 fewer than the previous week.

The state’s unemployment rate for August was 5% compared to the national unemployment rate of 4.3%. In August, Ohio’s labor force participation rate was 62.5% versus 62.3% nationally.

Medina and Geauga counties had the state’s lowest unemployment rate for August at 3.2%. Meigs County, part of the Appalachian region in southeastern Ohio, recorded the highest monthly rate at 7.4%

Trumbull County’s 6.2% rate placed it at 11th, with Mahoning County’s 5.7% putting it at 20th among the state’s 88 counties. Neighboring Ashtabula County came in 82nd with its 3.9% rate. Columbiana County’s 5.4% for September put it at 29th overall.

The estimates were prepared in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. The numbers are not seasonally adjusted.