Unemployment rate drops again in Ohio

Unemployment rate drops again in Ohio

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s unemployment rate went down for the fourth month in a row in February, with the most significant job gains in the trade, transportation and utility industries.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says Friday that seasonally adjusted joblessness fell to 7.6 percent last month, from 7.7 percent in January. The number of unemployed people decreased by 4,000.

The U.S. unemployment rate for February was 8.3 percent, unchanged from January. The state says Ohio payrolls outside of farms rose 28,300 to more than 5.1 million.

Trade, transportation and utility jobs were up 7,400, government positions increased by 4,700 and education and health services gained 3,300. The construction industry saw an increase of 4,200 jobs.

A year ago, the state’s unemployment rate was 8.9 percent.

Facebook attempts to address concerns

NEW YORK

Facebook has taken steps in recent days to address more worries about privacy, warning employers not to ask prospective employees for their passwords and trying to clarify its user “rights and responsibilities” policies.

But the latter effort backfired when tens of thousands of users, mostly in Germany, misunderstood the clarifications and blasted the company. Their discontent showed that, no matter what Facebook does, privacy concerns are still the biggest threat to users’ trust and to its growth.

Privacy issues have dogged Facebook for years. It settled with the Federal Trade Commission in November over allegations that it misled users about the handling of their personal information.