Labor Day 2015 woes in Ohio: Weak job growth, falling wages

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Ohio’s economy hasn’t fully recovered since the 2007 recession ended six years ago, according to a report a new report from Policy Matters Ohio.

The “Left Behind: The State of Working Ohio 2015,” reported Ohio had 35,400 fewer jobs in June than when the recession officially started in December 2007, a 0.7 percent loss.

Ohio had 5.3 million jobs in June, more than 240,000 jobs shy of 2000, which was the peak job year.

“Weak job growth and real wage decline are at the root of Ohio’s deep labor market woes on Labor Day,” Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, said in a statement.

Hanauer is the author of the report, which found Ohio labor force participation has also shrunk since 2003. In 2014, it was at 62.8 percent, lower than at any time since 1979. Between the recession start and June 2015, 236,000 people left Ohio’s labor force.

While overall unemployment in Ohio and the nation were half of what they were at the height of the recent recession, the African-American unemployment rate was at 11.9 percent in 2014, more than twice that of white Ohioans at 4.7 percent.

Read the full story Monday on Vindy.com and in the Labor Day edition of The Vindicator.