Jobless rate hits 25-year high

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Few industries in Ohio were immune from job losses last month, pushing the state’s unemployment rate to a 25-year high.

Service, administrative and manufacturing areas lost the most jobs in February. The only increases were in government, hospitality and construction, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday.

Overall, the state’s unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in February, the highest since 1984.

“We are seeing it hit all walks of life,” said Gary Williamson, executive director of The Job Center, a job training site in Dayton.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in February grew by 40,000 in one month to 566,000 people.

What’s more startling is how much those numbers have climbed in just one year — 217,000 more unemployed in Ohio over the last 12 months.

Cleveland economist George Zeller said some parts of the state, including Columbus and Cleveland, have lost more jobs in finance and insurance than in manufacturing.

“What this means is that we have two major problems in the economy here in Ohio, and this has never happened before, at least since the ’30s,” he said. “There are the two main bases of the Ohio economy, and we are losing jobs in large numbers in both.”

Manufacturing losses are driving the recession, he said, but Ohio’s troubles go beyond factory slowdowns.

“That’s largely due to a ripple effect from manufacturing,” Zeller said. “When we lost manufacturing jobs, we lose retail jobs and we also lose jobs in all other industries.”

Ohio’s February jobless rate increased from 8.8 percent in January. It hasn’t been this high since May 1984, when it was 9.6 percent, said Brian Harter, a spokesman with the state’s job and family services agency.

Improvement in the state’s employment picture depends on how quickly federal economic stimulus dollars begin creating jobs and whether restructuring in the auto industry can regenerate jobs in the Midwest, Harter said.

Auto plant shutdowns in the Dayton area have taken away about 20,000 jobs in the last decade. “We’ve hit pretty close to bottom,” said Williamson, who oversees a job training and placement site that sees 2,000 people each day.

He said there are a few areas where people can find work; welders, health care workers and skilled machine operators are in demand, he said. “It’s not all doom and gloom,” he said.

Others looking for work must be ready to learn new skills and take a job that pays less than what they might want, said Bob Mercer, supervisor of the Muskingum County Opportunity Center in Zanesville.

“The majority want to go back to work right away,” he said. “A lot of people are continuing their job search even after they’re hired. They’re trying to get back to what they were earning before.”