Ohio has nation's 5th highest unemployment claims in August

Business First of Columbus - 12:07 PM EDT Thursday

Mass layoffs in Ohio dropped slightly last month compared with 2005, but the state had the fifth highest number of initial unemployment claims in the nation.

The state had 23 large-scale layoff events of at least 50 workers in August, resulting in 3,772 initial claims for unemployment insurance, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.

In July, the state had 79 mass layoffs in July resulting in 10,108 initial claims. In August 2005, the bureau reported 26 mass layoffs resulting in 2,881 initial unemployment. The figures are seasonally adjusted.

California had the highest number of initial claims in August with 20,339 from 227 layoff events.

New York, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, California and Ohio had the highest number of initial claims filed accounting for 54 percent of all mass layoff events in the nation and 57 percent of all initial claims for unemployment insurance.

Nationally, mass layoffs rose slightly last month to 1,193 events, up from 1,125 in July and 1,145 in August 2005.

The bureau releases mass layoff statistics on a monthly and quarterly basis.