COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Nearly 2,000 fewer Ohioans filed for unemployment last week than in the week prior, keeping the state’s unemployment rate the lowest it’s been since 2019.

During the week of Sunday, Aug. 7 to Saturday, Aug. 13, Ohioans filed 6,227 new unemployment claims, 1,664 fewer than the week before, according to data released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The 32,900 continued unemployment claims filed over the same week-long period are down, too, by about 700 claims.

Both initial and continued unemployment claims dropped in Ohio during the week of Sunday, Aug. 7 to Saturday, Aug. 13. (Courtesy Photo/Ohio Department of Job and Family Services)

While the drop in both new and continued claims helped maintain Ohio’s 3.9% unemployment rate — the lowest it has been since May 2019 — the rate of workers without a job in the Buckeye State remains above the national 3.6% unemployment rate.

Ohio’s labor force participation rate in June, 62%, trails just a fraction of a percentage point behind the national labor force participation rate of 62.2, according to ODJFS.

Franklin County, where the unemployment rate is 3.8%, fares slightly better than Ohio as a whole, ODJFS found.

The ODJFS encouraged anyone looking for a job or in need of career assistance to visit OhioMeansJobs, where it lists 223,113 available positions and 2,674 available internships as of Monday.