While both the nation and the state have seen overall improvements in unemployment rates over the last year, Ohio’s rates have not enjoyed as much improvement as the nation as a whole as seen. According to statistics released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services at the end of December, Ohio lost 12,000 jobs in November of this last year. This represents the largest over-the-month decrease of jobs in the nation and puts Ohio’s over the year growth at 0.4 percent. The nation, in comparison, has shown an increase of 1.7% over the same amount of time.
Despite the loss of jobs that Ohio saw over the month of November, the states unemployment rate dropped from 7.5% in October to 7.4% in November as Ohio’s labor force grew. Whether or not this is a positive sign or a negative sign of growth is difficult to discern as the number of unemployed workers in Ohio remained unchanged at 427,000 between October and November. Nationally, the unemployment rate fell to 7.0%, once again showing Ohio as not meeting the national average.
With all other employment categories for the most part cancelling each other in terms of jobs lost and jobs gained, the majority of the jobs lost over the month can be accounted for in the 12,200 jobs lost in the leisure and hospitality industry. Other categories seeing decline were construction (-3600), professional and business services (-1800), financial activities (-1300), other services (-800), and information (-600). Industries showing growth include educational and health services (+4200); trade, transportation and utilities (+3000); and manufacturing (+500). Government employment saw gains in state government (+500) and federal government (+300) that exceed the losses in local government jobs (-200). Mining and logging employment remained unchanged over the month.
Counties across Ohio saw unemployment rates ranging from a low of 4.4% in Mercer County to a high of 15.6% in Monroe County. Those counties with the lowest rates in November included Mercer (4.4%), Holmes (4.9%), Auglaize (5.1%), Delaware (5.2%), and Union (5.4%). Counties with the highest rates included Monroe (15.6%), Meigs (12.3%), Pike (12.1%), Scioto (11.2%), and Ottawa (11.1%). Both Williams and Fulton County fell relatively close to the middle of this range with Fulton County seeing a decrease from 7.4% to 7.2% over the course of the month and Williams County improving to meet the national average of 7.0%. In comparison to the rest of the state, both Williams and Fulton County saw substantial growth as Fulton County rose from 36th to 45th among the states 88 counties and Williams county improved from 45th to 52nd.
Ohioans wishing to learn more about unemployment benefits or who are in search of a job can visit www.ohiomeansjobs.com. This information in this article and the monthly statistical summaries it is based on are also available at http://jfs.ohio.gov/ocomm.