By: James Pruitt
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
Unemployment rose sharply in Williams and Fulton counties in January, state figures show.
Williams County’s December seasonally non-adjusted jobless rate rose a percentage point to to 5.1. Fulton County jumped to 6.1 percent.
Mercer County had the lowest rate at 3.9 percent, while Monroe County had the highest rate at 12.8 percent. Area counties came in at: Defiance 5.4; Henry 7.2, Lucas 6.2 and Wood 6.0.
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 5.0 percent in January 2017, unchanged from a revised 5.0 percent in December 2016.
Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment decreased 2,100 over the month, from a revised 5,503,700 in December 2016 to 5,501,600 in January.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in January was 287,000, up 3,000 from 284,000 in December. The number of unemployed has increased by 4,000 in the past 12 months from 283,000.
The January unemployment rate for Ohio did not change from one year ago.
The U.S. unemployment rate for January 2017 was 4.8 percent, 0.1 percentage point higher than in December 2016, and 0.1 percentage point lower than in January 2016.
Total Nonagricultural Wage and Salary Employment (Seasonally Adjusted)
Goods-producing industries, at 913,000, added jobs in construction (+7,800), manufacturing (+1,900), and mining and logging (+200).
The private service-providing sector, at 3,817,100, lost 11,900 jobs.
Employment losses in educational and health services (-10,800), leisure and hospitality (-4,400), other services (-1,600), and information (-700) surpassed gains in financial activities (+4,500), trade, transportation, and utilities (+900), and professional and business services (+200). Government employment, at 771,500, decreased 100 as losses in federal government (-700) outweighed gains in local government (+600).
State government did not change from December.
From January 2016 to January 2017, nonagricultural wage and salary employment grew 31,100. Employment in goods-producing industries increased 6,100. Manufacturing added 3,500 jobs as gains in nondurable goods (+6,400) surpassed losses in durable goods (-2,900). Construction added 3,400 jobs. Mining and logging lost 800 jobs.
The private service-providing sector added 28,300 jobs. Employment gains in educational and health services (+8,100), financial activities (+8,000), trade, transportation, and utilities (+7,200), professional and business services (+3,900), leisure and hospitality (+1,700), and information (+1,100) exceeded losses in other services (-1,700). Government employment decreased 3,300 as losses in local (-3,600) and state (-500) government outweighed gains in federal government (+800).
The numbers for February will be released later this month.
Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment change from month to month.
As a general rule, the monthly employment and unemployment numbers reported in the news are seasonally adjusted data. Seasonally adjusted data are useful when comparing several months of data. Annual average estimates are calculated from the not seasonally adjusted data series.
James Pruitt may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com