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Ohio unemployment rate at 5.1 percent in January
YOUNGSTOWN
Although Ohio’s employment increased by 25,100 jobs in January, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained the same at 5.1 percent from a revised rate for December.
Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment increased from a revised 5,369,900 in December to 5,395,000 in January, according to figures released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
“That’s about the only good news we have,” said Cleveland-based economist George Zeller.
Unemployment in Ohio was at 293,000 in January, up 1,000 from the previous month.
Zeller said January’s figures show the state is 45,000 jobs short from June 2007, the beginning of the Great Recession. Ohio’s job growth is below the national average at 1.85 percent compared with job growth in the U.S. at 2.37 percent.
The U.S. unemployment rate for January was 5.7 percent, up from 5.6 percent in December.
“We’re growing too slowly,” Zeller said, adding that cuts in government jobs have not helped the state’s economy. Government employment was at 752,000, a decrease of 8,200 jobs from December.
“That is no way to speed up the recovery,” he said.
From December, employment in goods-producing industries increased 2,300 to 888,600. Manufacturing and mining gaining 3,600 and 100 jobs, respectively, despite a loss of 1,400 jobs in construction. The private service-providing sector gained 31,000 jobs at 3,754,400 in January.
The number of unemployed has decreased by 78,000 in the past 12 months from 371,000. In January 2014, the unemployment rate for Ohio was 6.5 percent.
Officials say the state has regained all the private- sector jobs that were lost during the economic downturn of 2007-10.
“We now have seen a job creation in about four years of now 352,000 [private- sector] jobs,” Gov. John Kasich said during a morning news conference at the Statehouse. “We are fully recovered from that downturn of the 350,000 jobs lost.”
Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, however, had a different take on the new jobs report, saying the numbers prove the recovery started under former Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat.
“While the report is encouraging, Ohio is still more than 24,000 jobs short of a full recovery from the Great Recession,” Schiavoni said in a released statement, adding Kasich failed to mention the lost public-sector jobs that haven’t been recovered.
In total, the state added 301,900 jobs from January 2011 through last month, up from a previously estimated 268,900.
Adding January’s results, the total is 327,000 additional jobs, a number that takes into account growth in the private sector and job losses in the public sector.
The Mahoning Valley’s unemployment numbers will be released Tuesday.
Contributor: Mark Kovac, Columbus correspondent