COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate remained unchanged for the third straight month in December as Ohio’s recovery from the recession continued at a halting pace.
The jobless rate last month was 4.9 percent as employers added 10,300 jobs while 4,000 more Ohioans said they were looking for work, according to data released Friday morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The 10,300 jobs gained in the service sector of the economy, manufacturing, and mining and logging outweighed losses in construction. There were 4,000 more people looking for work in December than in November and 11,000 more than in August, when the jobless rate sank to its low point for the year of 4.7 percent.
December’s 4.9 percent was higher than the national rate of 4.7 percent.
The figure represented the fourth straight month – and seventh out of the last 12 — when the unemployment rate in Ohio either increased or remained the same.
Employment grew by 41,800 during 2016 as the state’s labor force grew to 5.83 million in May, only to fall steadily for seven months after that to December’s 5.71 million.
The unemployment rolls swelled by 9,000 in the past 12 months as manufacturers shed 2,900 jobs because losses in durable goods manufacturing surpassed gains in nondurable goods. Construction added 1,900 jobs and the service sector 41,000 jobs, powered by gains in leisure and hospitality and in educational and health services. Government employment increased by 3,300 jobs.
The annual average rate of 4.9 percent for 2016 was the same as 2015, with 6,000 more Ohioans saying they were working in December than 12 months earlier but 11,000 more also saying they were searching for work.