Lordstown to stay lone maker of Cruze

May 21, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

LORDSTOWN

General Motors Co. officials said the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze could be produced at its Lake Orion, Mich., plant if demand continues to increase, but for now, Lordstown will remain the lone producer.

The Lake Orion plant builds the upcoming Chevy Sonic and the Buick Verano, two vehicles structured similarly to the Cruze.

Last month, the Cruze sold 25,160 units and produced 26,184.

Ohio unemployment continues to decline

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s jobs picture has continued its long and steady improvement, with the state’s unemployment rate going down for the 14th month in a row.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said today that joblessness fell last month to 8.6 percent, from 8.9 percent in March.

The state showing in April was better than the nation’s. The U.S. unemployment rate for the month was 9.0 percent, up from 8.8 percent in March.

The Ohio rate has gone down steadily since hitting a more than 25-year high of 10.6 percent in February 2010.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in April was 509,000, down from 527,000 in March. Officials say the state’s payrolls outside of farms grew by 8,600 last month.

Business in Ohio

COLUMBUS

The number of new entities filing to do business in Ohio grew in April compared to the same time last year.

This year, 7,737 entities filed, up from 7,258 in April 2010, according to statistics released Friday by Secretary of State Jon Husted.

Filings to date have grown to 30,172 compared with 27,950 through the first four months of 2010.

From staff reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Aqua America, .62, 22.61 .04

Avalon Holdings,2.94—.06

Clear Channel, .63 60.44 —.48

Cortland Bancorp, 7.20—.05

Farmers Nat., .12, 4.89 —.01

First Energy, 2.20, 44.76—.04

FirstMerit Corp., .64,16.77 —.22

First Niles Financial, .32,7.35.00

First Place Fin., 1.5135—.07

FNB Corp., .48,10.47—.20

General Motors,31.18.—. 29

General Electric, .60,19.62—.34

Motors Liquidation, .0422.00

Huntington Bank, .04, 6.37—.20

JP Morgan Chase, 1.00,43.13—.87

Key Corp, .04,8.40—.19

LaFarge, 16.98 —.16

Macy’s, .20, 28.63—.87

Parker Hannifin, 1.48, 86.44—1.36

PNC, 1.40,61.67—1.30

RTI Intl. Metals,36.90—.05

Rural/Metro,17.09 —.03

Simon Prop. Grp.,3.20,114.391.85

Stoneridge 13.72 .07

United Community Fin. 1.33.07

Selected prices at 4 p.m. Friday. Provided by Stifel Nicolaus. Not to be construed as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security.