Unemployment in Ohio dips to 10.3%

August 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Fewer Ohioans are out of work, causing the state’s unemployment rate to fall a couple of notches to 10.3 percent in July.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Friday that the rate went down from 10.5 percent in June as the number of workers unemployed in Ohio dropped from 625,000 to 614,000. The ranks of the state’s unemployed have declined by 22,000 in the last 12 months.

Department spokesman Ben Johnson says school district and local government layoffs last month were outweighed by job gains in manufacturing, services and other private businesses.

The state’s overall employment outside of farms rose by 1,800.

Ohio unemployment remains higher than the national rate, which was 9.5 percent in July.

Employment in goods-producing industries stood at 814,700 in July, an increase of 4,200 over June. That increase included about 1,200 jobs added for a third shift at the Lordstown General Motors Co. plant to produce the new Chevrolet Cruze.

Unemployment rates for counties, cities of 50,000 population or more and metropolitan areas in Ohio will be released Tuesday.

Across the U.S., unemployment fell in 18 states and Washington, D.C. in July, while it increased in 14 states and stayed the same in 18, the government said Friday