Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services has reported that Ohioans filed 12,041 initial traditional unemployment claims last week, which was a decrease of 279 from the previous week. In addition to this, 52,759 continued traditional unemployment claims were filed during the week of Dec. 24-30, which was an increase of 3,295 from the previous week. It was found that 2,426 of the initial claims have been flagged for more stringent identity verification. As of November, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 3.6%, slightly lower than the national unemployment rate of 3.7%. Ohio’s labor force participation rate for November was reported as 62%, compared to a national labor force participation rate of 62.8%.