Ohio unemployment claims fall, Kentucky's rise

So far this year, Ohio has seen the biggest drop in the number of initial unemployment claims filed due to mass layoffs compared with other states' 2005 totals, but it still ranks fifth nationally for the most claims filed since January.

Federal labor statistics show Ohio recorded 35 large-scale layoff events of at least 50 workers each last month, resulting in 2,890 initial claims for unemployment insurance. Kentucky employers accounted for 24 mass layoff actions in October, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month.

In September, Ohio had 39 layoffs resulting in 5,276 claims, and in October 2005 it had 33 events resulting in 4,820 claims, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. State figures are not seasonally adjusted.

The mass layoff actions Kentucky recorded this October are up from 10 in October 2005, the bureau said, accounting for a total of 9,645 claims that were made for unemployment insurance, up 72 percent from 2,710 in October 2005.

For this year, Ohio has seen the number of total claims fall to 57,515, compared with 59,445 for the same period in 2005. The state, however, ranks near the top nationally for the highest number of claims filed. California leads the nation with 255,626 unemployment claims filed since January, Michigan is second with 94,486 claims, Pennsylvania ranks third with 66,594 and New York is fourth with 61,989.

Kentucky had the highest year-over-year increase in the number of initial claims (an increase of 6,935), largely due to layoffs in transportation equipment manufacturing, the bureau said.

The labor department said most of the layoffs occurred in the manufacturing sector, particularly transportation equipment and machinery manufacturing.

Nationally, there were 1,171 mass-layoff events, which is a slight increase from the 1,132 recorded in September and 1,114 in October 2005.

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