Ohio Unemployment Edges Up to 5% in June
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The state’s unemployment rate ticked up to 5.0% in June, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported this morning. That’s up a tenth of a percentage point from 4.9% both in May and in June 2016.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio last month was 291,000, up 5,000 from 286,000 in May. Ohio’s unemployment rate compares to a 4.4% U.S. unemployment rate in June, a tenth of a point higher than in May and half a point lower than in June 2016.
“In recent years, Ohio has been unable to sustain strong job gains for more than a few months at a time,” said Zach Schiller, research director for Policy Matters Ohio. “Monthly numbers are volatile and subject to later revision, so an evaluation of the longer-term is more meaningful.
Reacting to the numbers, the research director for advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio, Zach Schiller, called the June gain “encouraging [but] job growth for the year remains tepid at best.”
He noted that Ohio has added just 56,800 jobs over the past year.
“That amounts to a 1% increase, compared to a national gain of 1.6% over the same time period,” Schiller said. “In the first six months of the year, the state gained 25,100 jobs, compared to more than 36,000 in the first half of 2016. And last year’s overall gain was the smallest since the end of the 2007 recession.”
Nonagricultural wage and salary employment in Ohio increased 11,500 over the month, from a revised 5,517,300 in May to 5,528,800 in June 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Employment in goods-producing industries, at 909,500, increased 4,700, with gains in manufacturing and construction exceeding losses in mining and logging.
The private service-providing sector, at 3,839,700, increased 700.
Employment gains in financial activities, trade, transportation, and utilities, other services, and educational and health services surpassed losses in leisure and hospitality, information, and professional and business services.
From June 2016 to June 2017, nonagricultural wage and salary employment grew 56,800. Employment in goods-producing industries increased 8,800, construction added 6,400 jobs and manufacturing added 2,400 jobs.
The private service-providing sector added 45,900 jobs. Employment gains in educational and health services, professional and business services, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, other services, and information exceeded losses in trade, transportation, and utilities.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
