WARREN – The number of jobless claims filed with the state last week as Ohio workers lose their jobs due to COVID-19 nearly reached the all-time high for claims filed in a month.

For the week of March 15-21, there were 187,780 claims filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the agency announced today. That’s No. 2 for claims filed. No. 1 is 205,159 for the entire month of December 1981, the height of the recession.

OJFS continues to urge people to file claims online at unemployment.ohio.gov.

Novel coronavirus-related claims workers who lose their jobs as a result of the coronavirus can enter the mass-layoff number 2000180 on their applications. However, if affected individuals have already submitted claims without this number, they do not need to add it.

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