Unemployment rate down with civilian labor force

By Kalea Hall | October 21, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning Valley’s nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate dropped year over year in September.

But so did the number of those employed and the civilian labor force.

“It’s another one of those months where everything is contradictory,” said George Zeller, a Cleveland-based economist. “We are growing, but still too slowly.”

In Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties combined, the unemployment rate was 5.2 percent – down from 5.9 percent reported in September 2014, according to data released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The number of employed dropped from 236,500 in September 2014 to 234,500; the number of unemployed dropped from 14,700 to 12,900; and the civilian labor force, or the sum of those employed and unemployed, dropped from 251,000 to 247,000.

The drop in the labor force is attributed to disgruntled workers leaving the job market and others retiring.

This drop, Zeller says, contributed to the decline in the unemployment rate.

“There was some recovery in the Valley,” he said.

But the recovery is too slow in the Valley and across the state, he added.

In Mahoning County alone, the unemployment rate went from 5.7 percent in September 2014 down to 5.1 percent in September 2015.

In Trumbull, the unemployment rate dropped from 6.1 percent in September 2014 to 5.4 percent.

In Columbiana, the unemployment rate went from 5.7 percent to 5.1 percent.

Ohio’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, reported last Friday, was 4.5 percent in September, down from a revised 4.6 percent in August. The state’s employment decreased 8,600 over the month with losses in the goods-producing industry and manufacturing. Employment went from a revised 5,409,500 in August to 5,400,900 in September.

The state saw gains in the private sector of 10,200.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in September was 254,000, down 11,000 from 265,000 in August.

The U.S. unemployment rate for September was 5.1 percent, unchanged from 5.1 percent in August.