Initial unemployment claims drop in Medina County and statewide last week

MEDINA — The number of initial unemployment claims for last week dropped in Medina and Lorain counties, as well as statewide, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. For the week ending on July 30, there were 74 initial unemployment claims submitted in Medina County, which is 15 fewer claims than the previous week. The numbers from last week are similar to last year because during the week ending on July 31, 2021, 69 claims were filed. Last week's numbers are the lowest number of initial claims from Medina County since the week ending on May 28, when there were 64 claims. In Lorain County, there was a larger decline in the number of claims. There were 139 initial unemployment claims received in the county for the week ending on July 30, which is 138 fewer claims than the week prior, meaning the number of claims decreased by nearly half in one week. This weekly amount for Lorain County is also lower than the number of claims from one year ago. The week ending on July 31, 2021, had 280 claims received. For the state of Ohio as a whole, there were 7,615 initial unemployment claims sent in throughout the state. This is around 1,500 fewer claims than there were for the previous week. It is also the second week in a row when the number of initial claims for Ohio were less than 10,000. The last time initial unemployment claims were below 8,000 for all of Ohio was the week ending on May 7. For that week, there were 7,021 initial claims. Continued unemployment claims for the whole state also decreased last week. For the week ending on July 30, just over 33,000 continued claims were submitted. This is about 2,300 fewer claims than the week before. On a national scale, more Americans applied for jobless benefits last week as the number of unemployed continues to rise modestly, though the labor market remains one of the strongest parts of the U.S. economy. Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 30 rose by 6,000 to 260,000 from the previous week's 254,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications generally reflect layoffs. The four-week average for claims, which evens out the weekly ups and downs, also rose from the previous week, to 254,750. The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending July 23 rose by 48,000 from the previous week, to 1,416,000. That figure has been near 50-year lows for months. On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that American employers posted fewer job openings in June as the economy contends with persistently high inflation and rising interest rates. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.