Joblessness falls in several states but climbs in Ohio

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sharp improvement, more than half of U.S. states added jobs in October, though economists said many of the gains likely occurred in temporary employment.

That’s customarily a positive a sign. Employers usually hire temporary workers before they add full-time jobs. But in this case, the temporary hiring may be inflated by the auto sector, which has boosted production to replace depleted inventories. As a result, the increase might not be sustainable.

In Ohio, the unemployment rate has gone up for the first time in three months, to 10.5 percent in October from 10.1 percent in September.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Friday that joblessness increased despite slightly more hiring by both services and goods-producing businesses.

Department director Douglas Lumpkin says more workers found themselves unemployed and looking for work, keeping the state’s labor market weak.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio last month was 618,000, up from 594,000 in September. But nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1,400.

Ohio joblessness had fallen in both August and September. Officials said the reason was that job seekers were getting discouraged and dropping out of the labor force.

Overall, 28 states added jobs in October. That’s up from only seven in September and eight in August. It’s also the largest number to record increases since 33 states did so in February 2008, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank.

“It’s a positive signal ... that states are mixed rather than uniformly bad,” said Jim Diffley, a regional economist at IHS Global Insight. Previous reports have all been “doom and gloom,” he said.

Many states that added jobs still saw an increase in their unemployment rates. The figures for jobs and unemployment come from separate reports. The unemployment rate is calculated from a survey of households, while the jobs count comes from a survey of businesses. The two don’t always match up.

The unemployment rates rose in 29 states in October from the previous month, the Labor Department said Friday. Thirteen states saw their jobless rates drop.

Michigan still had the nation’s highest unemployment rate in October: 15.1 percent.