Youngstown, Warren Fall from Top Spots in Unemployment

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – For the first time in months, neither of the Mahoning Valley’s largest cities posted the highest monthly unemployment rate in Ohio last month.

Warren, which reported a 6.3% unemployment rate in May, was tied with Lorain for the third highest unemployment rate among Ohio cities tracked by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, according to statistics made available this morning. Youngstown, at 6.1%, was tied with Garfield Heights for the fifth highest unemployment rate last month.

Maple Heights reported the highest unemployment rate, 6.9%, among Ohio cities, while Cleveland reported the second highest jobless rate for the month at 6.4%.

Warren’s May unemployment rate was down from 7.5% a year earlier and form 6.5% in April. Youngstown’s rate for the month compared to 6.2% in April and 7.7% in May 2017.

Countywide rates in the region and for the local metropolitan statistical area were also down last month.

Trumbull County reported a May unemployment rate of 5.2%, down a full percentage point from 6.2% a year earlier, and down from 5.5% in April. Mahoning County’s unemployment rate was 5.0% last month, compared with 5.2% the month before and 5.9% in May 2017.

Columbiana County’s unemployment rate in May was 4.5%, down from 4.8% in April and from 5.3% in May 2017.

The Youngstown-Warren-Boardman MSA, which encompasses Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County in Pennsylvania, posted a 4.8% unemployment rate in May, down from 5.1% in April and 5.9% in May 2017. For the Ohio-only portion of the metro, unemployment was 5.1% last month, compared with 6.0% a year earlier and 5.3% in April.

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