COLUMBUS, Ohio – Columbus continues to enjoy the lowest unemployment rate among Ohio’s large cities, at 4.3 percent in April, its lowest level in eight years, according to data released by the state Tuesday morning.
The jobless rate in the eight-county Columbus region was also 4.3 percent, 0.7 percent lower than March and 1.6 percent below what it was one year ago, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The last time the unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in central Ohio was December 2006.
The unemployment rate in Cincinnati was 5.2 percent; in Cleveland, it was 8.5 percent.
Job growth was relatively slow in the Columbus area during the first three months of the year: 0.2 percent, compared with 0.3 percent increase statewide and a national growth rate of 0.4 percent, according to a report produced by Columbus 2020.
However, the regional unemployment rate for April is still well below the state’s 5.7 percent and the U.S. rate of 6.3 percent.
Employers in the central Ohio region reported hired 9,600 of the 12,600 Ohioans who found jobs in April, including 3,100 jobs in mining, logging, construction and manufacturing and 5,600 service-sector jobs.
The labor force in central Ohio shrank by only 600 last month, while 14,000 people dropped out of the labor force statewide, a trend that concerns economists and others who worry some of those are discouraged workers who may never find good jobs again.
Since December 2007, Ohio’s the liberal group Policy Matters Ohio says the labor force has shrunk by 3.5 percent while employment has decreased 3.2 percent, leaving the state more than 120,000 jobs short of pre-recession employment levels, says Hannah Halbert, the group’s workforce researcher.