Ohio will no longer release its growing unemployment claim numbers on a daily basis as the economy slumps through the COVID-19 outbreak after the Trump administration told states to hold the statistics for weekly reports.

Last week, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported that claims for unemployment filed between Sunday and Thursday had reached nearly 140,000, up from fewer than 5,000 during the same period a week earlier.

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The state had been providing daily updates, but that stopped when the U.S. Department of Labor advised states that they should speak in generalities about unemployment claims until the weekly release of national statistics on Thursday mornings.

“The data from these reports is monitored closely by policy makers and financial markets to determine appropriate actions in light of fast-changing economic conditions,” the department wrote in a memo. “As such, the data must remain embargoed until the national claims report is released the following Thursday at 8:30 a.m.”

That memo arrived over the weekend, said Bret Crow, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said Monday that the state would comply.

But Husted said Tuesday that he was "troubled" the federal government blocked the release of daily numbers, and, "I believe that we should have this on a daily basis."

Other states, including South Carolina, also are not providing daily updates.

The embargo of state weekly claims data for every Thursday first started in 1993, according to a Department of Labor spokesperson.

“State data is regularly embargoed until the national numbers are published on Thursday morning and states are asked not to share their data until that time. As a leading economic indicator that has the potential to impact policy decisions and financial markets, it is important to ensure the information is communicated in a consistent and fair manner,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The explosion in unemployment claims overwhelmed the department’s website, unemployment.ohio.gov, on Monday, but state officials said that still was the easiest way for Ohioans to file for benefits. The website was down for part of the day on Monday, Crow said.

“This system was not built for a crisis. It was built to take care of what we could expect on a regular or even robust basis. But what we’re experiencing now is frankly unprecedented,” Husted said during a news conference Monday.

The department has extended hours at its unemployment call center to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and added a shift from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday to deal with the overflow.

“We’ve been inundated with online claims, which has affected the processing times of claims,” Crow said.

In its memo, the Department of Labor told states they should “provide information using generalities to describe claims levels,” including “very high” and “large increase.” But they should not provide numbers before Thursday’s national release, the memo said.

“We have been using words like ’unprecedented’ and ’historic’ and ’record-setting’ for the number of jobless claims we received in eight days. Those eight days exceeded the highest month on record,” Crow said.

In addition to the surge in claims, the state is starting to hear from the companies that are laying off workers due to the virus.

Over the past week, 17 companies in Ohio have filed notices announcing layoffs.

Of that number, 15 blamed the virus for the layoffs. The number of such notices is certain to rise in coming days and weeks.

So far, the companies that have taken action vary from restaurants to manufacturers to companies that are complying with the state’s order to shut down if they are non-essential.

Usually, companies give a 60-day notice before layoffs go into effect, but the companies say they couldn’t provide that notice because the issue with the virus has developed quickly.

Norcold, based in Sydney, laid off 345 workers this week, almost its entire staff, said Alissa Reyes, vice president of human resources for the company. Norcold makes refrigerators for the recreational vehicle industry, which has shut down because it is not considered an essential business, Reyes said.

"RV sales have actually picked up after the crisis. We had thousands of sales in California for people using RVs as temporary shelters," Reyes said.

The company has been working to be designated an essential business.

Norcold laid off 224 of the 265 workers at its Sydney plant and 121 of the 137 workers at its Gettysburg plant, according to the notice the company filed with the state. Both plants are in western Ohio.

Other companies that have laid off workers include Roush Auto Group (200 workers), Kirchhoff Automotive in Waverly (225 workers), and Embassy Suites in Dublin (77 workers).

The biggest layoffs so far are with Cameron Mitchell, which has shut down its restaurants because of the virus, laying off 1,390 workers in Ohio.

The Columbus-based company also announced that it has closed Rusty Bucket restaurants operated by a sister company, ending the jobs of another 910 Ohio workers.

Dispatch Reporters Mark Williams and Jim Weiker contributed to this story.

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan