Ohio loses more jobs

March 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Revisions to the state’s 2009 job-loss estimates show that about 70,000 additional jobs were lost, bringing the total to 255,000.

The revisions reflect jobs lost from December 2008 to December 2009 and show that Ohio was left with just fewer than 5 million jobs. The last time Ohio’s job numbers dipped below 5 million was 1993.

“I think it shows how bad the economy was,” said Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

“My personal feeling is that we came very close to a major financial meltdown,” he said. “I think that has been avoided.”

Strickland said his economic advisers feel the economy is stabilizing and in a period of recovery.

“The good news is, from my point of view, the free fall has stopped,” he said.

Jim Newton, chief economic adviser for Columbus-based Commerce National Bank, said that doesn’t necessarily translate into people finding many new jobs. Things will still be tough for the unemployed retailers, governments dealing with lower tax receipts, he said.

“It really is kind of another punch in the gut for us to realize that we lost that many additional jobs,” he said.

Based on the most recent monthly reports, the state’s unemployment rate was 10.9 percent in February as more people entered the job market but were unable to find work. The state rate was more than a full percentage point higher than the national rate for February of 9.7 percent.

In February 2009 Ohio had unemployment of 9.1 percent.

The updated annual numbers show that the recession was deeper that previously thought and that the model Ohio uses to estimate job losses is “catastrophically wrong,” said Cleveland economic analyst George Zeller.

The model Ohio uses is being reviewed by the federal government, Ewald said.

Zeller said the implications of the job situation are “tremendous.”

“In the past when we lost jobs in Ohio, people just picked up and moved,” Zeller said. But in today’s economy, “people can’t go anywhere.”

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Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com