COLUMBUS, Ohio – Leisure and hospitality, construction, transportation and utilities were the occupations from which Ohio workers were most likely to find themselves unemployed in 2024.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services recently released an in-depth analysis of the 2024 unemployment figures, as well as the past decade’s trends. Using annual averages from the local area unemployment statistics program and the current population survey, the report explores who is unemployed in the state.

In April 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 16.5%, with 911,200 Ohioans unemployed. The number of unemployed reached a decade low of 198,200 in May 2023. In 2023, the average unemployment rate in Ohio was 3.7%, but it rose to 4.3% in 2024.

At the end of 2024, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.5%, slightly higher than the national average of 4.1%.

In 2023, only 28,000 unemployed people had been searching for a job for 27 weeks or more, but in 2024, that rose to 39,000, which was 40,000 less than in 2021.

In 2024, Ohio had a labor force participation rate of 62.6%, with more than 5.6 million people employed. 

Of the 254,000 unemployed workers in Ohio, 52.2% were men and 52.9% were in the prime working age group of 25 to 54 years old. 

Although 81.5% of Ohio’s population is White, only 65% of those unemployed are White. Minorities represented 35% of the unemployed, including 26.4% who are Black and 4.7% who are Hispanic or Latino.

About one-fourth of the unemployed had a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 34.9% were high school graduates with no college experience. The unemployment rate for those with some college experience or an associate degree was 3.9%. The unemployment rate was 4.3% for those with a high school diploma and 8.2% for those without a high school diploma.

While Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.3% in 2024, higher than the U.S. rate of 4%, in the Mahoning Valley it was even higher. Trumbull County had the highest unemployment rate in the Valley at 5.2%, followed by Mahoning County at 5% and Columbiana County at 4.9%.

Of those looking for work across the state, 45% were unemployed due to temporary or permanent layoff, while 35% left the workforce temporarily before beginning to seek employment again. Those who quit their job and those looking for their first job were at 10% each.

Of those who were unemployed in 2024, 38% found a job within less than five weeks, while 32% found a new job between five and 14 weeks. Long-term unemployment was 30%. Half were unemployed for seven weeks or longer.

The number of workers who have become discouraged by the labor market and are no longer looking for work has risen from 3,600 in 2023 to 11,300 in 2024.

The full report can be viewed HERE.