Area Unemployment Drops, Still Tops Ohio

Ohio Unemployment Rises to 4.5% in June

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.5% in June, up from 4.3% in May, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday, and down from 5.1% a year earlier.

The U.S. unemployment rate in June was 4%, up from 3.8% in May and down from 4.3% in June 2017.

Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 7,900 over the month, from a revised 5,596,800 in May to 5,604,700 last month.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in June was 259,000, up 9,000 from 250,000 in May. The number of unemployed has decreased by 34,000 in the past 12 months from 293,000.

Employment in goods-producing industries, at 935,200, decreased 700 over the month as losses in construction surpassed gains in manufacturing. Mining and logging were unchanged. The private service-providing sector, at 3,885,200, added 9,800 jobs.

Employment gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, other services, and information exceeded losses in trade, transportation and utilities, and educational and health services. Financial activities had no change over the month.

Over the year, nonagricultural wage and salary employment grew 72,300. Employment in goods-producing industries increased 18,500. Manufacturing added 12,700 jobs, construction added 4,700 jobs and mining and logging added 1,100 jobs.

Employment in the private service-providing sector increased 50,600 as gains in leisure and hospitality, trade, transportation and utilities, financial activities, education and health services, and professional and business services outweighed losses in information. Government employment increased 3,200.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.