Valley’s January unemployment rate increases

By Kalea Hall

khall@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning Valley’s January nonseasonally 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 Tuesday. February figures will be released March 22.

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.

George Zeller, a Cleveland-based economist, saw an increase in the new unemployment claims for three weeks, which, he says, explains the increase in the jobless rate. Last week is when he saw the increase in claims stop.

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

“The change in the labor force didn’t have much to do with the weakness in the Valley,” Zeller said.

Weaknesses in the economy include manufacturing and the energy sector. Meanwhile, the auto industry is flourishing.

Trumbull County saw the highest increase in its jobless rate – going from 7.5 percent in January 2015 to 9.6 percent.

Mahoning County’s rate went from 7.1 percent to 8.9 percent.

Columbiana County’s rate went up from 7.1 percent to 8.1 percent.

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.

“That is an extremely weak performance,” Zeller said.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in January was 279,000, up 6,000 from 273,000 in December. The number of unemployed has decreased by 12,000 in the past 12 months from 291,000, the state says.

The U.S. unemployment rate for January was 4.9 percent, down from 5 percent in December and down from 5.7 percent in January 2015.