Jobless rate in Ohio drops to 9.9%

Associated Press

TOLEDO

Ohio’s unemployment rate is below 10 percent for the first time in more than a year and a half, the seventh-consecutive month it has gone down.

Hiring in the health-care industry has been a bright spot in the state, and manufacturing is starting to recover from the recession, a state official said Friday.

Still, growth has been limited.

“The only area that maybe we feel is really robust right now is health care,” said Ben Johnson, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “We’ve seen signs of a lot of health-care hiring in recent months.”

The state’s jobless rate ticked down to 9.9 percent in October, from an even 10 percent in September, the department announced. The last time Ohio’s unemployment rate was under 10 percent was in March 2009.

“This isn’t a whopping drop in the unemployment rate, but it shows steady progress, and it shows that the job market across the state continues to strengthen,” Johnson said.

Ohio’s unemployment rate remained higher than the national average, which was 9.6 percent in October.

The state’s nonfarm payroll employment rose by 8,400 last month. The number of unemployed workers dropped to 588,000, from 591,000 in September. Officials say the number has gone down by 50,000 in the past 12 months.

Gov. Ted Strickland, who was voted out of office less than three weeks ago, credited his administration’s policies and investment in high-tech industries for the improvement.

Hiring picked up in the service and hospitality industries, the state said.

Construction work is struggling to rebound, Johnson said.