COLUMBUS – State officials say the number of people working non-farm jobs in Ohio hit an all-time high in September with more than 5.6 million people employed.
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services spokesman Bret Crow says Ohio added jobs at a 1.9 percent rate from September 2017 to September 2018, higher than the U.S. rate of 1.7 percent for that period.
Ohio’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in September was 4.6 percent, unchanged from August, as employers added 4,300 jobs.
The hiring was powered by gains in manufacturing and the service sector, which added a combined 7, 300 jobs, more than compensating for jobs that were lost, including the 2,400 in local and state government. Overall, the state has added 104,600 in the last year.
The number of unemployed workers declined to 266,000 from 268,000 in August. The number of unemployed has decreased by 21,000 in the past 12 months.
The September 2017 unemployment rate for Ohio was 5.0 but last month’s 4.6 percent still lags behind the nationwide jobless rate of 3.7 percent.
The unemployment rate is determined by a survey of households and another of employers.