Valley Unemployment Rates See Decline in April

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Local unemployment rates fell by a percentage point or more month-over-month in April, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Tuesday morning.

Unemployment rates last month dropped by 1.1 percentage points each from the March rate in Trumbull County, from 5.1% to 4%, and Mahoning County, from 5.0% to 3.9%. Unemployment in Columbiana County declined to 3.7% in April from 4.9% the month before. 

The unemployment rate in all three counties last month was down a half a percentage point or more from April 2022, when unemployment was at 4.5% in both Mahoning and Trumbull counties and 4.2% in Columbiana County.

The Mahoning Valley’s two largest cities both reported unemployment rates of 4.9% in April, down from 6% the month before in Youngstown and 5.9% in Warren. In April 2022, Youngstown’s rate was 5.9% and Warren’s was 5.4%.

The two cities were tied for the second highest unemployment rate among the cities ODJFS reports rates for. Sandusky had the highest rate among Ohio cities, 6.2%.

The April unemployment rate for the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area was 3.8%, down from 4.9% the month before and from 4.5% in April 2022. The MSA includes Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County in Pennsylvania.

Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.