Unemployment rose slightly in Williams County last month, while Fulton County’s rate spiked.
Williams County’s December seasonally non-adjusted jobless rate rose by 0.2 points to 4.1. Fulton County jumped to 4.6 percent.
Both Ohio and the nation saw a rise in the not seasonally adjusted rate. Ohio stood at 4.7 percent (up from 4.4 percent) while the national rate rose from 4.4 percent to 4.5 percent.
Ohio’s seasonally adjusted rate for December was 4.9 percent, unchanged for the third straight month. Last year the state’s rate was 4.8 percent. The national rate was 4.7 percent, up from 4.6 percent in November, but still down from the 5.0 percent of 2015.
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.
Area counties show Lucas at 4.9 (up 0.1), Henry, 5.4 (up1.2); Paulding, 4.4 (up 0.3); Defiance, 4.4 (up 0.1) and Wood 3.9 (up 0.2).
Statewide, Mercer County still has the lowest rate at 3.1 percent, while Monroe has the highest at 9.6 percent. Both counties had higher rates than November.
Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 10,300 over the month, from a revised 5,506,900 in November to 5,517,200 in December 2016.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in December was 282,000, up 4,000 from 278,000 in November. The number of unemployed persons has increased by 9,000 in the past 12 months from 273,000. The December unemployment rate for Ohio was 0.1 percentage points higher than the December 2015 rate of 4.8 percent.
The U.S. unemployment rate for November was 4.6 percent, 0.3 percentage points lower than in October 2016, and 0.4 percentage points lower than November 2015.
Statewide, goods-producing industries, at 909,500, lost 1,400 jobs as losses in construction (-2,800) exceeded gains in manufacturing (+1,100) and mining and logging (+300).
The private service-providing sector, at 3,828,800, added 13,100 jobs. Employment gains in professional and business services (+5,900), trade, transportation, and utilities (+3,200), educational and health services (+2,700), financial activities (+1,600), information (+900), and leisure and hospitality (+800) surpassed losses in other services (-2,000).
Government employment, at 778,900, decreased 1,400 as losses in state government (-4,300) outweighed gains in local (+1,600) and federal (+1,300) government.
From December 2015 to December 2016, nonagricultural wage and salary employment grew 41,800.
Employment in goods-producing industries decreased 2,500. Manufacturing lost 2,900 jobs as losses in durable goods (-8,000) surpassed gains in nondurable goods (+5,100). Mining and logging lost 1,500 jobs. Construction added 1,900 jobs. The private service-providing sector added 41,000 jobs.
Employment gains in leisure and hospitality (+13,300), educational and health services (+11,200), financial activities (+10,000), trade, transportation, and utilities (+9,000), and information (+800) exceeded losses in professional and business services (-3,200) and other services (-100).
Government employment increased 3,300 as gains in local (+5,000) and federal (+2,400) government outweighed losses in state government (-4,100).
James Pruitt may be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com