COLUMBUS, Ohio – Central Ohio maintained its reputation as the engine driving job growth in Ohio as the region’s unemployment rate dropped to a six-year low in March, mirroring the decline in the state’s jobless rate, according to data released Tuesday morning.
The unemployment rate in the Columbus metropolitan region last month was 5.0 percent, lowest since May of 2008 and lowest of Ohio’s large metro areas. The figure represented a 0.5 percent decline from February, according to the Ohio Department of job and Family Services.
The unemployment rates in Franklin County and the city of Columbus were 4.9 percent, lowest among Ohio’s big cities. Cleveland struggles with the highest: 9.4 percent.
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in March 2014, down from 6.5 percent in February and also the lowest since the spring of 2008.
The U.S. unemployment rate for March was 6.7 percent.
Central Ohio’s jobless rate has fallen from a recession high of 9.7 percent in January of 2010 and has declined 1.3 percent since last March, thanks to additional jobs in leisure and hospitality, mining, logging, and construction and government which offset losses in other sectors.
Employment increased 11,500 from March 2013 to last month, fueled by growth in the mining, logging, and construction sectors, leisure and hospitality, educational and health services; trade, transportation, and utilities and government.
The state says 973,400 people were employed in the Columbus region in March, an increase of 5,700 from February.
In central Ohio, Delaware (4.1) and Union (4.6) could boast the lowest unemployment rates while Pickaway County’s 6.6 percent was the highest.