WILMINGTON — The federal government is providing $2.9 million to Ohio to provide re-employment services to workers who lost jobs when DHL closed its U.S. cargo delivery hub at Wilmington Air Park, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Tuesday.

The funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, is to provide employment services to 729 workers affected by layoffs at the airport near Wilmington, Brown said. It is the third round of such federal funding, that included $3.8 million in November 2008 and $4.4 million in November 2009.

DHL announced plans in May 2008 to close its Wilmington hub operation as part of cost-cutting to reduce losses in the express delivery company’s U.S. operations. That eliminated at least 8,000 jobs at the hub, which had been the Wilmington region’s largest employer and drew workers from the Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus areas.

In 2010, DHL donated the airport to the Clinton County Port Authority so that the public entity could direct economic redevelopment efforts there.