Reports

The COVID-19 Pandemic presented the Department with many challenges and obstacles including a sharp increase in the volume of unemployment claims as well as the expansion of regular unemployment benefits by the federal government. The Department did not have the man-power or technology resources to adequately deal with this drastic increase in claim activity and the addition of new federal unemployment funding. The Department’s legacy unemployment System, Ohio Job Insurance (OJI), has been in place since 2004. Due to its age and functionality, it was unable to handle the increased volume of...

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ohio’s unemployment system was flooded with new claims. Our audit found that the unemployment compensation system was not prepared for the surge in unemployment applications resulting from the pandemic. While limited human resources played a role, antiquated systems and lack of business intelligence made problems worse.

This audit is part of a multi-state project to examine data related to COVID-19. This effort was a collaboration among State Auditor offices from Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Ohio and was developed with assistance from the National State Auditors Association.