Ohio's jobless rate drops to 6.1 pct. in March

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped in March to 6.1 percent, its lowest level in six years, according to state job figures released today.

The seasonally adjusted rate last month fell from 6.5 percent in February, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said. It’s the state’s lowest jobless rate since April 2008.

Ohio’s rate is below the national rate, which was 6.7 percent in both February and March.

Job and Family Services spokesman Ben Johnson said the state’s unemployment rate fell because more people were working and the size of the labor force shrank.

“It was not exclusively one or the other,” Johnson said in an interview.

Gov. John Kasich’s presumptive Democratic rival in the gubernatorial election claimed the decline in the unemployment rate could be attributed to Ohioans giving up on their job search.

“This jobs report demonstrates that Governor Kasich’s policies only work for a select few,” Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald said in a statement.

Employment in the state has been growing over the last 12 months, while the size of the labor force has been relatively stagnant, Johnson said. Last month, the state added 12,000 jobs, while the labor force dropped by about 11,000.