Small drop seen in Valley's unemployment rate

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning Valley’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 7.7 percent in August, according to figures released today by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

That’s still above the state’s average, which edged up in August from 7.2 percent in July to 7.3 percent as Ohio lost jobs in the manufacturing, health care and social services sectors.

Job growth continued to stay flat last month. The Valley’s civilian labor force was unchanged from one year ago at 263,000, while there were 500 more people employed across all three counties.

Despite reduced jobless claims, gains in the region’s manufacturing industry and a positive note last week when the Brookings Institution said the Youngstown-Warren metropolitan area had the highest rate of export growth in the country in recent years, unemployment last month barely moved from its mark of 7.8 percent in August 2012.

According to ODJFS figures, the Valley’s labor force has added only 3,000 workers since the beginning of the year.

“We badly need to speed up our rate of recovery, but that rate of recovery slowed further in Ohio during August, and it fell further behind the rate of recovery in the United States,” wrote Cleveland-based economist George Zeller in a research note last week after the statewide numbers were released.

While the Valley did add more workers last month, Ohio lost 8,200 jobs despite improvement in the national unemployment rate, which dropped from 7.4 percent to 7.3 percent.