Monthly, Year-Over-Year Unemployment Rates Improve in Mahoning Valley

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Area unemployment rates in December remained around where they were the month before, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Tuesday morning. 

Trumbull County’s 4.4% unemployment rate was unchanged from the November rate, and was down from 5.6% in December 2020. Mahoning County’s 4.2% rate last month was down a tenth of a percentage point from the month before and down form 4.7% in December 2020. 

Columbiana County posted a 3.7% unemployment date in December, compared with 4% in November and 5.6% in December 2020. 

Youngstown reported a 5% unemployment rate in December, down half a percentage point from November’s 5.5% rate and down nearly 3.5 points from 8.4 in December 2020. Warren’s unemployment rate was 4.9% in December, down from 5.2% the month before and from 8% in December 2020. 

The December rate for the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area, which covers Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County, Pa., was 4.3%, down slightly from November and more substantially from December 2020’s 6.6% rate. 

Annual rates in 2021 were down substantially from the year before, when layoffs and business shutdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic drove unemployment claims up.  

Trumbull County’s average unemployment rate for 2021 was 6.3%, down from 10.4% the year before. Mahoning County’s average unemployment rate was 6.2% last year, compared to 10.2% in 2020. Columbiana County’s 5.6% rate in 2021 was down from 9.4% the year before. 

Youngstown’s 12.9% average rate in 2020 fell to 8.1% in 2021. Warren’s 7.7% average rate last year was down from 12.8% the year before.

The Youngstown-Warren Boardman MSA’s average unemployment rate was 6.4% in 2021, down from 10.2% in 2020.       

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