Coronavirus leads to record unemployment claims

SANDUSKY — Unemployment benefit claims skyrocketed as more people find themselves out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic. To stall the spread of COVID-19/coronavirus, retailers, salons, gyms, restaurants, factories and more have closed, leaving thousands of Ohioans without a job. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services received 139,468 applications for unemployment benefits from Sunday — the day Gov. Mike DeWine closed dining-services at restaurants — to Thursday. For comparison, the number of applications for the same period the week before was 4,815. "Since we've had our current tracking system, the numbers we've seen the last four days is unprecedented," department spokesman Bret Crow said. "The highest weekly total that I found in a historical tracking spreadsheet was 44,034 the week of Jan. 4-10, 2009." Despite the increase of claims on its website, Crow believes the system can handle the traffic. "We have heard that at least three states' — Kentucky, Oregon and New York — unemployment systems crashed while Ohio's system keeps chugging away," Crow said. The department has expanded its call center's hours of operation from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. "To handle the onslaught of calls, we are taking an all-hands-on-deck approach and have shifted several employees from other areas — and adding more each day — in our agency to help answer questions and process applications on the phone," Crow said. "Still, it's important to keep in mind that this is an unprecedented time, so we would ask callers to have patience." Crow said most of the calls are about people's PIN. Most people can follow the automated prompts to reset their PIN on their phone on their own, but if they're unable to, they will need to talk to a representative. "Once they reset their PIN, they can file their claim online," Crow said. "The dedication of our staff to help Ohioans through this crisis has been nothing short of amazing." People who met the wage and weeks requirements, including part-time employees, can apply at unemployment.ohio.gov. Workers who lost their jobs as a result of coronavirus can enter mass-layoff number 2000180. Crow also wanted to remind people the state jobs and family services handle unemployment claims and not the local county departments.