Valley Unemployment Rates Rise Slightly in December

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Local unemployment rates showed a slight month-over-month increase in December despite unemployment dropping slightly in the Mahoning Valley’s largest city.

The December unemployment rates in Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties all rose a tenth of a percentage point from the month before, the Ohio Department of Job and Family services reported Tuesday.

Trumbull County’s unemployment rate last month was 4.0%, up from 3.9% the month before, while Mahoning County’s rate was 3.9% last month, up from 3.8% the month before. Columbiana County reported a 3.6% unemployment rate last month, up from 3.5% the month before.

Rates in all three counties were down from a year earlier. The December 2022 unemployment rate was 4.5% in Trumbull County and 4.2% in both Mahoning and Columbiana counties.

The city of Warren posted the highest unemployment rate among the Ohio cities ODJFS released numbers for, 4.8%, up from 4.6% in November but down from 5.3% in December 2022. Youngstown reported a 4.5% rate for December, down from 4.7% the month before as well as from 5.2% in December 2022, but it still had the third highest rate among Ohio cities.

The Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which covers Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County in Pennsylvania, reported a 3.8% unemployment rate in December, up from 3.7% the month before but down from December 2022’s 4.4%.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.