Area Month-Over-Month Unemployment Rates Rise

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Area unemployment rates spiked in June, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported this morning.

The uptick is likely the result of the termination June 18 of the second shift at the General Motors Lordstown Complex, resulting in the loss of more than 1,600 jobs at the plant and its suppliers.

According to the monthly data, Youngstown and Warren were tied with the city of Maple Heights for the third-highest unemployment rate among Ohio cities.

The Mahoning Valley’s two largest cities each posted unemployment rates of 8.1% in June, up from May’s 6.1% in Youngstown and Warren’s 6.3%. Both cities’ unemployment rates were down slightly from a year earlier, when the jobless rate was 8.3% in Warren and 8.4% in Youngstown.

Trumbull County’s unemployment rate in June was 6.5%, up from 5.2% the month before but down from 6.7% in June 2017. Mahoning County’s rate last month was 6.2%, down from 6.4% a year earlier but up from May’s 5%.

Columbiana County’s June unemployment rate, 5.8%, was up from 4.5% the month before but down slightly from June 2017’s 5.9%.

For the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County, Pa., unemployment in June was at 6%, compared with 6.3% a year earlier and 4.8% in May. In the Ohio-only portion of the MSA, unemployment was 6.3% last month, up from 5.1% in May and down from June 2017’s 6.5%.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.