COLUMBUS – Unemployment in central Ohio dropped to a 14-year-low in August, after increasing or holding steady for three months.
The jobless rate in the 10-county region in August was 3.6 percent, a drop of 0.6 percent from July and the lowest level since July 2001 when it was 3.4 percent, according to data released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
There were 4,500 fewer people working in the region, but also 6,500 fewer people listed as unemployed, as the labor pool shrank by 11,000, many of whom may have bene students returning to school.
Ohio’s unemployment rate last month was 4.7 percent. The national rate was 5.1 percent.
The area boasted the lowest unemployment of any of Ohio’s major metropolitan areas, with Cleveland’s 5.3 percent being the highest.