According to the most recent data release by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services on April 18, 2014, unemployment rates have continued to improve across the state of Ohio. The March unemployment rate for Ohio, at 6.1%, is down from 6.5% in February and 7.3% one year ago.
All of Ohio’s 88 counties saw improvement over the last month. Locally, unemployment in Williams County dropped from 6.2% in February to 5.7% in March and in Fulton County from 8.1% to 7.3% over the same time frame. Despite these improvements Williams County fell from 73rd to 64th and Fulton County from 28th to 24th in the state rankings. The state rankings rank counties 1st through 88th with the highest unemployment rate ranked first. The fall in rankings for both counties is due to the improvement of other counties within the state.
Statewide unemployment ranged from a low 3.7% in Mercer County and a high of 12.5% in Monroe County, which was at 14.2% just one month ago. Eight counties had rates at or below 5.0%. These counties include Mercer (3.7%), Delaware (4.1%), Holmes (4.1%), Auglaize (4.2%), Union (4.6%), Hancock (4.7%), Franklin (4.9%), and Logan (5.0%). In comparison, six counties had rates higher than 10.0%. These counties include Monroe (12.5%), Morgan (10.8%), Pike (10.8%), Huron (10.4%), Meigs (10.2%), and Ottawa (10.2%).
The total number of Ohioans unemployed is down to 353,000 in March from 377,000 in February and from 421,000 12 months ago. Areas seeing job growth over the last month included construction (+4600), leisure and hospitality (+4800), professional and business services (+3200), education and health services (+2400), and state government (+400). Losses were seen in manufacturing (-3500); mining and logging (-100); trade, transportation, and utilities (-4900); other services (-1600); financial activities (-900); local government (-3500); and federal government (-100).
The U.S. unemployment rate, at 6.7%, remained unchanged from February to March and is down from 7.5% one year ago.
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.