The latest unemployment numbers released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services this morning show nearly one million people across the Buckeye State who are out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic. The latest figures from the state show 964,566 folks in Ohio filed for unemployment benefits the week of April 12-18. That includes more than 100,000 people in the Dayton-area alone who filed for jobless benefits last week.
Chelsea Davis, of Dayton, is just one of the 133,595 people across the Dayton-area who are out of work because of this public health emergency.
"I have three kids, I'm a single mom. So it's just rough right now," Davis said. "Luckily I had savings that's gonna get me through it for a little bit until unemployment comes you know this stimulus check, something."
Davis was laid off from her job as a server at Tank's Bar and Grill in Dayton once the bar closed after the pandemic hit.
She's far from alone in the jobless struggle. Teresa and Troy Davis, a married couple living in Union, are both out of work. Teresa was a manager at a hair salon in Vandalia. Troy has shuttered his non-essential sporting goods store for the time being. He told News Center 7, "Everything that I do has to do with schools, youth leagues, all of the outside activities that would be happening this time of year."
"It's hard not to wake up and go to work," Teresa Davis said. "I'm a sociable person so interacting with those people on a daily basis they're like my second family. So it's tough."
The Davises said they had no trouble filing for unemployment and getting their benefits, but WHIO has heard from many others who haven't been as lucky.
"It's been a struggle on the aspect of getting connected on unemployment," said Aspen King of De Graff. "A lot of unanswered questions there." King and her husband, Mark, are out of work at their home in Logan County. Aspen works with therapy dogs for developmentally disabled adults. Mark hauls transmission parts for Honda.
"So when they laid me off my employer just said indefinitely," Aspen said. "Now Mark's got something a little more definite to go on on that." As the couple sat on their living room couch during an interview over a Zoom meeting, Mark King added, "It's basically whenever Honda goes back to work I go back to work." Neither of the Kings had received unemployment from the state when WHIO interviewed them earlier this month. Aspen King said, "We're lucky we had our income taxes (return) so that's what really is carrying us through."
The State of Ohio's COVID-19 job search web page shows thousands of job postings in call centers as well as the retail, distribution and healthcare industries.
"The last month is something we've never seen before," said Jeff Hoagland, the President and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition. Hoagland says the coalition he leads is working to connect all sorts of local businesses -- from large companies to start-ups -- with state and federal aid to help them survive. "Trying to find programs in partnership with what the federal government is doing to keep the doors open as long as they can to preserve cash and keep the employee base that they have," Hoagland said.
Hoagland added that as the economy begins to re-open, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with its $15.5 billion annual impact on the Dayton-area economy and other defense spending that happens on base regardless of a pandemic could also help the recovery locally. "Are we into June, July, August, September? Whichever month it is, the sooner the better obviously," Hoagland said. "But I still think there is a high-demand for businesses that are looking to expand - the defense world is continuing - that work never stops, that's the good thing for the Dayton economy."
For now, there's hope that Ohio's economy will eventually return to a new normal.
But for many, including our neighbors who have lost jobs in the restaurant jobs, like Chlelsea Davis, that hope comes with a looming sense of uncertainty. “I have a feeling like it’s totally not going to go back to normal when it’s all over with,” Davis said.
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