By: Chelsie Firestone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
The most recent statistics released show both Williams and Fulton Counties unemployment numbers coming back down from a significant rise that occurred between December and January.
Williams County saw unemployment fall from 5.6% in January to 5.1% in February. Likewise, Fulton County also fell from, moving from 6.6% to 6.1% in the same time span. This does not completely offset the jumps from December’s figures, which saw unemployment for Williams County at 4.1% and Fulton County at 5.1%.
Ohio’s unemployment remained unchanged at 5.1% from January to February while the nation’s unemployment fell from 5.7% to 5.5% in that time frame. The number of employed in Ohio fell from 293,000 to 291,000 from January to February and remains down from the 357,000 mark held 12 months ago. Unemployment percentages for both the state and the nation are also down from one year ago when the state figure was 6.2% and the national figure was at 6.7%.
Statewide, unemployment rates for February ranged from a low of 3.6% to a high of 10.0%. Counties with the lowest rates included Delaware (3.6%), Mercer (3.7%), Holmes (3.9%), and Hancock (4.0%). Counties with the highest rates included Monroe (10.0%), Adams (9.9%), Meigs (9.6%), Ottawa (9.4%), Huron (9.3%), and Pike (9.2%). The ranking system, which ranks those counties with the highest rates first, currently shows Williams County at 64th and Fulton County at 43rd.
Job gains in the state were seen in state government (+3900); leisure and hospitality (+3200); construction (+2900); local government (+2300); trade, transportation, and utilities (+2200); and manufacturing (+1500). Losses were seen professional and business services (-6400), education and health services (-3100), other services (-1400), financial activities (-1300), mining and logging (-200), information (-200), and federal government (-100).
Ohioans wishing to learn more about unemployment benefits or who are in search of a job can visit www.ohiomeansjobs.com. The information in this article and the monthly statistical analysis it is based upon are also available at http://jfs.ohio.gov/ocomm
Chelsie can be reached at
chelsie@thevillagereporter.com