Valley jobless rate climbs to 14.7 %

By Don Shilling

Warren records the highest rate of all cities in Ohio at 16.6 percent.

The local unemployment rate — already at the highest level in 26 years — just went higher.

The state said Tuesday that the combined jobless rate for Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties jumped to 14.7 percent in June. It had been 13.2 percent in May.

“I’m shocked at these numbers,” said Bert Cene, executive director of the Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association. “I thought they’d be going the other way.”

He’d hoped the worst of the recession was over because the jobless rate had been holding steady or declining since it spiked to 13.8 percent in January. Last year, the rate was 7 percent most of the year.

The extended shutdown of the General Motors’ Lordstown complex probably was one reason that the jobless rate climbed in June, Cene said. About 1,800 workers have been off the job since June 1 and are to return Aug. 3.

Other employers appear to be cutting back as well as the number of people coming into local One-Stop centers for job training and job searches is still high.

Cene said he expects the jobless numbers to get better as the year wears on.

A few employers have told him this month that inquiries for new orders are up. During the recession, many businesses have been depleting their inventories instead of ordering new products, he said.

Distribution companies and light-manufacturing businesses appear the most likely to rebound, he said.

Steel fabricators seem to have a slower road to recovery because the steel industry remains slow, he said. Locally, Severstal Warren hasn’t been making steel since last October, and about 1,000 people are laid off there.

Bill Turner, administrator of the Trumbull County One-Stop, said the local economy will be hurting until Severstal and GM get their workers back on the job.

Even when GM restarts the Lordstown complex, it will have about 2,700 workers still on layoff because it will operate at one shift instead of three as it did last summer.

The area can’t rely strictly on the old standbys of steel and autos, however, Turner said.

Existing companies and entrepreneurs should be looking to the future, which seems to be green energy, he said. Local manufacturers should be able to retool operations to make components for windmills and solar panels, he said.

In the meantime, workers should be upgrading their skills and looking for opportunities, he said.

“It’s a full-time job to look for a job, and in these times you have to focus all your efforts,” he said.

Here are June’s unemployment rates by county:

U Mahoning County, 13.9 percent, up from 12.2 percent in May and 6.9 percent in June 2008;

U Trumbull County, 15.5 percent, up from 14.3 percent in May and 7.8 percent in June 2008;

U Columbiana County, 14.7 percent, up from 13.3 percent in May and 7.2 percent in June 2008.

Last month, Warren had the highest unemployment rate of any city in the state at 16.6 percent. Youngstown’s rate was 15.2 percent.

While jobless numbers are up, they remain well below 1983 when steel mill closings had forced the Mahoning Valley’s rate to nearly 22 percent.

shilling@vindy.com