Mahoning, Trumbull End Year with Double-Digit Average Unemployment Rate

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Mahoning and Trumbull counties, as well as their two largest cities, finished 2020 with average unemployment rates in the double digits, and Columbiana County wasn’t far behind.

According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family services, Trumbull County’s unemployment rate averaged 10.6% in 2020, fourth highest in the state. In 2019, the county’s annual rate was 6.1%.

Mahoning County posted a 10.2% unemployment rate for 2020, tied for seventh highest among Ohio’s 88 counties and up from 5.7% the year before. Columbiana County performed slightly better than its neighboring counties, but its 9.6% average unemployment rate for 2020 was double the previous year’s rate.

Unemployment averaged 13% for Warren throughout the year, not quite double the 7.1% in 2019. Youngstown posted a 12.7% average for 2020, compared with 7% in 2019.  

For the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metropolitan statistical area, which covers Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer county in Pennsylvania, unemployment averaged 10.3% in 2020, compared with 5.7% in 2019. 

Youngstown ended 2020 with the fourth-highest unemployment rate among Ohio’s cities, behind Maple Heights, Sandusky and Cleveland. The city’s December unemployment rate of 9% represented an improvement from the month before, when unemployment was 9.9%, though it was nearly three percentage points higher than the December 2019 rate of 6.1%. 

The city of Warren’s unemployment rate last month was 8.6%, down from 8.9% in November but up from December 2019’s 6.5%.  

Trumbull County’s December unemployment rate was 6.9%, seventh highest among Ohio counties and up slightly from 6.8% the month before. The December 2019 rate was 5.6%. 

Mahoning County reported a 6.6% rate last month, down slightly from 6.7% the month before but up from 5.2% in December 2019.   

Columbiana County’s December unemployment rate was 6.2%, up from 6% the month before and December 2019’s 4.4%. 

The metro area rate last month was 6.9%, unchanged from November but up from December 2019’s 5.4%. 

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.