COLUMBUS – Ohio employers added more than 116,000 jobs in 2018, a growth rate not seen in more than two decades, according to data released by the state Friday morning.
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in December as 2,900 jobs were created, increasing the number of Ohioans who reported they were working to 5.65 million, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The growth rate of 2.1 in 2018 is the strongest showing since 1994, Hannah Halbert, project director with Policy Matters Ohio, said.
An annual benchmarking process could result in figures being revised upward or downward, she said, but Ohio’s job growth rate outperformed that of the nation as a whole for the first time in eight years.
It remains to be seen what the impact will be of General Motors’ planned closing of its Lordstown assembly plant and the idling of the 1,500 workers there.
The manufacturing sector added 10,400 jobs in 2018, construction added 14,500 while service sector employment grew by 78,600 and government increased by 11,700.
The number of unemployed workers increased by 2,000 in December to 265,000, which was 16,000 fewer than December 2017. The unemployment rate declined from 4.9 percent in December 2017.
The U.S. unemployment rate for December was 3.9 percent, up from 3.7 percent in November, and down from 4.1 percent in December 2017.