Ohio’s jobless rate dips to 9.8%

Ohio’s jobless rate dips to 9.8%

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

State officials say for the first time in eight years, Ohio’s unemployment rate is not higher than the national one.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Friday the state’s jobless rate slipped from 9.9 percent in October to 9.8 percent last month. The national unemployment rate for November also was 9.8 percent.

Officials note Ohio unemployment has fallen for eight months in a row since hitting a 26-year high of 11 percent in March.

The number of unemployed workers in Ohio dropped to 579,000 last month, from 588,000 in October. Officials say the number has gone down by 58,000 in the past 12 months.

The state’s nonfarm payroll employment also fell in November, by 7,800.

Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate declined to 8.6 percent from 8.8 percent.

The national unemployment rate has been stuck above 9.5 percent for more than a year, yet some states have made strides. Two states with little else in common — New Hampshire and Alabama — have seen the steepest drops in unemployment in the 12 months that ended in November.

New Hampshire has added jobs in a broad range of industries, including manufacturing, education and health care, and leisure and hospitality.

The state’s 5.4 percent unemployment rate is fourth-lowest in the country, the Labor Department said Friday in a report on state unemployment. A year ago, its rate was 6.9 percent.

Alabama is benefiting from a growing automotive- manufacturing base. It still has an unemployment rate of 9 percent, though that’s down sharply from 10.9 percent in November 2009.

New Hampshire’s growth means it’s nearly regained all the jobs it lost during the downturn, said Dennis Delay, an economist at the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy, a think tank. The nation as a whole has generated about 1 million net jobs in the past year, after losing nearly 8.4 million in 2008 and 2009.

Delay credits a variety of factors, including the state’s low tax burden — it has no income or sales tax — and the Obama administration’s stimulus package. The federal stimulus money funded infrastructure and energy- conservation projects. The state has gained 1,500 construction jobs in the past year.

Alabama, meanwhile, has benefited from higher auto production as U.S. auto sales have recovered since the recession. Auto sales rose 17 percent in November compared with a year earlier, according to Autodata Corp.