Despite Drop, Warren Posts Highest Jobless Rate in August

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Area unemployment rates in August were down from where they were a year earlier, as well as from the month before. Despite the improvement, unemployment rates in Warren and Youngstown were among the highest among Ohio cities, with the Trumbull County seat topping the list.

Warren’s unemployment rate was 7.6% in August, down more than half a percentage point from July’s 8.2% and nearly a full point from 8.4%. Youngstown was tied with Lorain for the third-highest unemployment rate among Ohio cities, despite its 7.4% rate last month reflecting an improvement from 8.5% a year earlier and from 8.2% in July.

Trumbull County’s unemployment rate in August was the fifth highest among Ohio’s 88 counties. The 6.1% unemployment rate last month was down from 6.6% a month earlier and from 6.8% in August 2017.

Mahoning County’s unemployment rate of 5.7% in August was down from 6.5% a year earlier and from 6.2% in June. The county ranked 12th among Ohio counties.

Columbiana County posted a 5.0% unemployment rate last month, compared with 5.4% a month earlier and from 5.7% in August 2017.

In the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metropolitan statistical area, which includes Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County in Pennsylvania, the August unemployment rate was 5.7%, down from 6.5% a year earlier and from 6.2% in July. The rate in the Ohio-only portion of the MSA was 5.9%, down from 6.6% a year earlier and from 6.4% in July.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.