OHIO — The Buckeye State saw a slight uptick in its unemployment claims filed at the end of January into February.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services provided an update on the data for claims filed between Jan. 26 and Feb. 1.

Ohio saw 7,553 initial unemployment claims filed last week, an increase of 290. Of these, 914 were flagged for identity verification to avoid fraud.

There were 71,763 continued unemployment claims filed for the same week, an increase of 635. 

In total, Ohio saw 79,316 claims filed.

In December, Ohio's unemployment rate was 4.4% compared to the national rate of 4.1%. The state's labor force participation rate for December was 62.6% while the nation's was 62.5%