COLUMBUS, Ohio – The unemployment rate remained at its lowest level in more than 13 years last month.
According to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the jobless rate in the eight-county Columbus metropolitan area in December was 3.7 percent, same as in November and the lowest level since October 2001.
The region continues to outperform the state, with its 4.8 percent unemployment rate, and the nation as a whole, which posted a jobless rate of 5.6 percent last month.
Some analysts say Ohio’s job growth has been slow, despite declines in the unemployment rate. The number of employed workers in central Ohio actually declined from November to December, but so did the number of people in the work force, which indicates fewer people looking for work, possibly because they have dropped out of the labor pool via retirement, returning to school or that their benefits expired.
Columbus boasted the lowest unemployment rate of any of Ohio’s major metropolitan areas. Cincinnati was the next lowest at 4.1 percent. Cleveland’s 5.9 percent was the highest.
The central Ohio unemployment rate in December 2013 was 5.4 percent and it began 2014 at 6.0 percent.