Wednesday, September 21, 2016
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning Valley’s unemployment rate is up, and manufacturing jobs are down.
The Valley’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 5.9 percent in August 2016 compared with 5.5 percent in August 2015.
Total unemployment was 14,600 compared with 13,700 reported in August 2015, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Total employment was 232,600 compared with 233,500 reported in August 2015.
The civilian labor force, or the sum of the unemployed and employed, stayed the same at 247,000.
In the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman Metropolitan Statistical Area, manufacturing saw a loss of 800 jobs year-over-year in August, which exceeded the 300 gains made in mining, logging and construction, according to the Ohio Labor Market Review’s nonseasonally adjusted data.
Nonseasonally adjusted data is compared year-over-year, not month-over-month.
The decline in durable-goods manufacturing is the reason why the unemployment rate was up in all three Valley counties, Cleveland economist George Zeller believes.
Zeller explained the weakness in manufacturing is connected to the value of the dollar, which is high right now.
This makes it more expensive for companies overseas to buy U.S. products, and more difficult for U.S. companies to sell their products.
Zeller would like to see the government stimulant the economy.
“We are in danger of a recession if we do not spend fiscal stimulus,” he said.
In just Mahoning County, the nonseasonally August 2016 unemployment rate was 5.8 percent compared with 5.5 percent reported in August 2015.
Trumbull County’s nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate was 6 percent compared with 5.8 percent reported in August 2015.
In Columbiana County, the nonseasonally adjusted jobless rate was 5.9 percent in August 2016 compared with 5.2 percent in August 2015.
The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate in August 2016 dropped slightly to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent in July 2016.
The U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August was 4.9 percent, unchanged from July.