Area Jobless Rates Rise Sharply in January

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — January unemployment rates in the Mahoning Valley and neighboring counties rose sharply from the month before, up about two percentage points, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported this mornibng.

Both Columbiana and Mahoning counties posted unemployment rates of 7.1% last month, up from 5.3% in December for Columbiana and 5.5% for Mahoning,. Trumbull County’s jobless rate was 7.5% in January, up from 5.8% in December.

Still, in all three counties, the January unemployment rate was lower than a year earlier. In Trumbull County, the January 2014 rate was 9.2%, in Mahoning County 8.8% and Columbiana County 8.5%.

In Youngstown, unemployment in January was 8.8%, up from 6.9% in December but down from 10.8% in January 2014. In Warren, the January rate was 8.2%, down more than two full points from January 2014’s 10.5% through up from December’s 6.3%.

For the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA metropolitan statistical area, which covers Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County, Pa., the unemployment rate in January was 7.0%, up from 5.4% in December although down from 8.6% in January 2014.

For the Ohio-only portion of the metro, the unemployment rate was 7.3% in January, compared with 9.0% a year earlier and 5.6% in December.

SOURCE: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

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