Unemployment rate improves, but Valley jobs slow to rise

Unemployment rate improves, but Valley jobs slow to rise

youngstown

The unemployment rate for the Mahoning Valley continues to plummet, but the number of jobs continues on a slow rise.

There were 19,400 people counted as unemployed in May 2012 compared with 25,000 in May 2011, dropping the unemployment rate for Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties combined to 7.4 percent, a drop from 9.3 percent in May 2011, according to labor-market statistics from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The increase in the number of employed was not nearly as dramatic, however, growing by 900 jobs from 242,400 to 243,300.

The biggest reason for the decreased unemployment rate is the drop in the civilian labor force, which went from 267,000 in May 2011 to 263,000 this year, JFS and labor-market statistics show.

At the current rate of recovery, it would be 2017 before the area returned to an employment ratio equal to the one before the economic crash in 2007, said Tod Porter, economics professor at Youngstown State University.

The employment ratio is determined by calculating the number of people employed and collecting data on the working-age population.

“The good news is the employment-growth rate is rising faster than the population-growth rate,” Porter said.