By: 1808Delaware Staff; Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 16.8% in April, up from a revised 5.8% in March. Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment decreased 823,700 over the month, from a revised 5,539,100 in March to 4,715,400 in April.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in April was 957,000, up 623,000 from 334,000 in March. The number of unemployed has increased by 721,000 in the past 12 months from 236,000. The April unemployment rate for Ohio increased from 4.1% in April 2019.
Ohio’s leisure and hospitality sector was remarkably hard-hit, losing 263,500 jobs in one month, according to the Ohio Department of Joh and Family Services.
The 16.8% rate represents the highest since unemployment record keeping data began to be kept over five decades ago, and was very much expected. In the last eight weeks, some 1.2 million Ohioans have filed unemployment claims.