Ohio’s August unemployment unchanged

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s unemployment numbers remained unchanged from July to August, data released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services showed Friday.

The unemployment rate stayed at 5.7 percent.

Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment did increase by 200 over the month from 5,292,700 to 5,292,900 in August.

The total number of unemployed workers in August in the state was 324,000, which is up by 1,000 from July.

In August 2013, the state’s unemployment rate was 7.2 percent.

Ohio is still down from the U.S. unemployment rate, which was at 6.1 percent in August.

Cleveland-based economist George Zeller maintains Ohio is recovering from the 2007 recession, but the growth remains slow. This is now the 22nd-consecutive month the state has been behind the national average for job growth, he said.

“In July, we lost more jobs than any other state, and then in August, we only gained 200 jobs,” Zeller said.

“We need to speed up, not slow down. We need to recover 145,300 jobs in order to be on target,” Zeller added. Ohio had that many more jobs in 2007 compared with now, he said.

The Mahoning Valley’s unemployment numbers will be released Tuesday.