COLUMBUS — The state’s declining unemployment rate will soon trigger a decrease in the amount of federal unemployment compensation available to Ohioans.

The number of weeks of unemployment compensation available depends on the state’s unemployment rate, which averaged less than 7 percent in September, October and November.

That means the maximum amount of compensation available, including state unemployment compensation, will drop from 63 weeks to 54 weeks Jan. 12

The reduction in weeks is largely unrelated to the measure Congress recently passed to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” which extended unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless for a year.

Ohio’s Department of Job and Family Services estimates that roughly 66,000 Ohioans would have lost their benefits without the bill’s passage.