Ohio Jobless Filings To Be Released Weekly As Feds Demand, Not Daily

The number of Ohioans filing for unemployment benefits are rising daily — so many that the state’s unemployment website was having trouble handling them. And the state is now clarifying why it will no longer have daily releases about how many people are filing jobless claims.

For the first few days of shutdowns related to coronavirus, the state was releasing unemployment claims filings daily, as they soared from around 562 on March 8 to more than 28,000 on March 19.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said Tuesday he’s frustrated that those numbers will now be released weekly instead of daily, at the request of the U.S. Department of Labor.

“I believe that we should be allowed to release it on a daily basis, but that’s what they asked for, and we have to collaborate, we have to work together," he said Tuesday.

More than 139,400 Ohioans filed for unemployment between March 15 and March 19. That's compared to 4,815 in same first five days of the previous week.

The federal Labor Department sent a letter telling states to hold unemployment claims filings until national data is released on Thursday mornings, saying it’s a statistic monitored closely by policy makers and financial markets.

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