Valley's January unemployment rate up

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning Valley’s January non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate crept up to 9 percent from the 7.3 percent reported last January.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services released the January 2016 unemployment figures today.

The Valley, which includes Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull counties, saw an increase in the number of unemployed by 4,400 while the number of employed decreased by 3,900 year over year.

In January 2016, the number of unemployed was 22,500 compared with 18,100 in January 2015.

The number of employed went from 231,300 in January 2015 down to 227,400 in January 2016.

The civilian labor force, which is the total of unemployed and employed, went up 1,000 from 249,000 to 250,000.

Ohio’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in January 2016, up from a revised 4.8 percent in December. Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 100 over the month, from a revised 5,475,400 in December to 5,475,500 in January 2016.