COLUMBUS, Ohio—Both new and ongoing unemployment claims filed in Ohio hit a two-month low last week, thanks – at least in part – to the steadily decreasing number of claims flagged for fraud.
The latest figures, released Thursday, suggest some signs of a gradually reviving economy, and indicate that state officials are making headway in their months-long struggle to fend off a deluge of fraudulent jobless claims.
Between March 28 and April 3, 44,985 first-time jobless claims were received by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, according to a department release. About 3,700 of those filings are suspected to be fraudulent, the release stated.
That’s down from roughly 147,000 initial jobless claims submitted the first full week of February. However, it’s still higher than the usual number of claims filed in the months leading up to the coronavirus crisis last spring. For example, in February of 2020 – the month before Gov. Mike DeWine closed businesses and issued a stay-at-home order – about 20,500 new claims were logged.
In addition, 283,201 continued jobless claims were filed last week, including both traditional unemployment claims and claims for extended benefits, ODJFS reported. That’s the lowest number of ongoing claims filed since the end of January, though it’s unclear exactly how many of those claims are genuine.
Financial analysts say claims for unemployment benefits are generally the closest thing available to a real-time measure of the health of the job market, though they add that other economic indicators must be examined, too, to get a full picture of the economy. Ohio’s unemployment rate fell to 5% in February, though the state is still down 314,000 jobs from a year ago.
Ohio’s coronavirus cases had also been on the decline since the beginning of the year, though they’ve ticked back up the past couple of weeks.
The number of claims flagged as potentially fraudulent has also dropped in eight of the last nine weeks, from a high of about 44,000 in early February, according to the data.
Starting in late January, ODJFS saw the number of new jobless claims sharply rise by nearly 300%. Much – though not all – of that rise was blamed on Ohio being suddenly targeted with tens of thousands of fraudulent claims by scammers mostly working from overseas.
State officials recently signed contracts worth more than $10 million to help the ODJFS better detect and prevent fraud. But even so, given the ongoing problems with fraud, it’s unclear exactly how reliable jobless claims figures are these days to gauge the state of Ohio’s economy and job market.
A total of 94,929 Ohioans received federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits last week, according to the ODJFS. That’s down significantly from 177,713 PUA recipients the week before.
During the year-long coronavirus crisis, which caused widespread unemployment as businesses were closed and saw sales plummet, ODJFS said it has issued a total of more than $9.3 billion in unemployment compensation payments to more than 984,000 people.
The state has also distributed a total of more than $10.1 billion in PUA payments to more than 1 million claimants.
Until a couple months ago, Ohio -- like many other states -- has found far more fraudulent claims among Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits than they have among traditional unemployment benefits. That’s because, until the new federal stimulus package passed in December set new rules, less documentation was required for PUA benefits than for traditional unemployment benefits.
Last year, Ohio paid out at least $330 million in PUA benefits to scammers, according to ODJFS. Bogus claims were even filed in the names of Gov. Mike DeWine, First Lady Fran DeWine, and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
Security experts say scammers – located mostly overseas in countries such as Nigeria, Russia, and China – try to scam every state’s unemployment system, going state-to-state looking for systems particularly vulnerable to fraud. In recent months, scammers have targeted other states with a similar bombardment of claims. In January, a surge in bogus filings led Kansas to shut down its unemployment benefit processing system.
State officials say that Ohioans who find that scammers have filed claims in their name should immediately file a report with ODJFS, then take steps to protect their identity, including those listed on the Ohio attorney general’s website.
People who want to see whether they’ve been victimized can receive a free credit report online, he said. If that website displays an error message (as it did for one reporter), people can request a credit report individually from each of the three bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Read more Ohio politics and government stories:
Bay Village podcast producer announces bid for 16th Congressional District
Ohio’s coronavirus case rate up again to close to 183.7 cases per 100,000 over last two weeks
University of Akron to begin vaccinating students Thursday
Madeline’s Law would require Ohio insurance plans to cover children’s hearing aids
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