Ohio Unemployment Hits Record Low of 3.3%

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s unemployment rate in July was a record low 3.3%, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday.

Down a tenth of a percentage point from June’s 3.4% rate, unemployment last month was the lowest since 1976 when the series for reporting unemployment started. July’s unemployment rate for Ohio was down 0.7% from 4.0% in July 2022.

Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 12,100 over the month, from a revised 5,627,100 in June to 5,639,200 in July, the highest payroll employment reported since the series started in 1990.

The U.S. unemployment rate for July 2023 was 3.5%, down from 3.6% in June 2023, and unchanged from 3.5% in July 2022.

“Ohio is the heart of opportunity, and today, we are making history,” Gov. Mike DeWine said in a news release. “Our formula in Ohio is working, and today’s jobs news is proof of that.”

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in July was 194,000, down from 200,000 in June, according to the state report. The number of unemployed has decreased by 34,000 in the past 12 months from 228,000.

Employment in goods-producing industries, at 944,900, increased 2,700 as gains in construction surpassed losses in manufacturing and mining and logging. The private service-providing sector, at 3,912,800, increased 4,100 as gains in private educational and health services exceeded losses in financial activities; trade, transportation and utilities; professional and business services; other services; information; and leisure and hospitality.

Government employment, at 781,500, increased 5,300 with gains in local, state and federal government.

Year-over-year, nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 89,200 in July. Employment in goods-producing industries increased 16,600. Manufacturing increased 2,900 as gains in durable goods outpaced losses in nondurable goods. Construction added 13,100 jobs, and mining and logging gained 600 jobs. Employment in the private service-providing sector increased 62,400 as gains in private educational and health services, leisure/hospitality and other services outweighed losses in professional and business services; trade, transportation and utilities; information; and financial activities. Government employment increased 10,200 with gains in state, federal and local government.

“The importance of these numbers is the great career opportunities they represent for the people of Ohio,” Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said. “We’ve had six months in a row that our unemployment rate has been below 4%, and we have gained 67,700 private sector jobs in the first seven months of 2023. A growing economy is important for more than economic reasons – it allows our children and grandchildren to have great career opportunities without ever leaving Ohio.”

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.