COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ New state data shows the number of unemployment benefits claims filed in Ohio last year was the lowest since 1973.
The Columbus Dispatch reports just under 422,000 applications for benefits were filed in 2015 as the state’s unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade. Benefits claims have trended lower since 2009, when there were nearly 1.2 million applications.
The peak in filings over the past four decades came in 1982, when 1.6 million applications were submitted during a recession.
A spokesman for the Department of Job and Family Services says the drop in claims “strongly suggests” that people are keeping their jobs and that the risk of layoffs has fallen. Spokesman Benjamin Johnson says more people are working and not relying on unemployment insurance.
