COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped below 7 percent for the first time since just before the onset of the Great Recession.
According to data released Friday morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the state’s unemployment rate of 6.9 percent in January was down from 7.1 percent in December and reflected the addition of more than 16,000 jobs despite severe weather that froze many sectors of the state and national economy
It was the lowest rate since August, 2008, when the state’s jobless rate was also 6.9 percent, but doomed to skyrocket to 10.6 percent within the next year. It also narrowed the gap between Ohio’s jobless rate and the nation’s, which rose to 6.7 percent in February.
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Governor John Kasich and fellow Republicans hailed revised data from the U.S. Labor Department that showed Ohio added 238,000 new private-sector jobs in the last three years.
“There’s certainly more work to do, but by tearing down barriers to job growth, our jobs-friendly policies are helping Ohioans unleash their natural energy, creativity and work ethic and they’re lifting up our state,” he said.
Kasich’s Democratic challenger in November says the data hides a sluggish jobs performance.
“Ohio continues to trail the nation in unemployment and the past two years have actually been significantly worse than what was previously reported. Instead of continuing to cut taxes for the wealthiest, the Governor needs to focus on policies that grow the economy from the middle out,” Ed FitzGerald said.
“If you’re wealthy and well-connected, Gov. Kasich’s top-down economy is working you. But, if you’re working and middle class it’s harder to get ahead under economic policies targeted at the wealthiest Ohioans, ” House Minority Leader Tracy Maxwell Heard (D-Columbus) said.
The improvement seemed to show that Ohio’s economy broke out of a a pattern of stagnation, but state officials say revised data indicate that the employment situation was not as static as it appeared during much of 2013.
“When we did the revision, we saw a smoothing of the labor force and an increase in the unemployment rate, but that wasn’t necessarily bad news,” ODJFS spokesman Ben Johnson said.
The revisions indicated that, rather than a marked slowdown in job growth in 2012 and 2013, Ohio was adding jobs “more steadily and quicker than previously reported,” director Bruce Madson said.
The policy research group ProgressOhio calls the revised figures an improvement but says Ohio’s “relative job growth still trailed that of the nation” over the past year.
The employment news from Washington was also warmer than the weather as the Labor Department reported U.S. hiring improved in February from the previous two months, likely renewing hopes that growth will accelerate this year.
The agency says U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs last month, up from just 129,000 in January, which was revised up from 113,000.
The figures were a welcome surprise after recent economic reports showed that harsh weather closed factories, lowered auto sales, and caused existing-home sales to plummet.
The increase in the national unemployment rate is due to a higher number of Americans who started looking for work but didn’t find jobs. That’s still an encouraging sign because more job hunters suggest that people were more optimistic about their prospects.
The 3.68 million Ohioans listed as employed, according to a survey of businesses, was the highest number since March, 2009, though Madson says it will be revised next month and again next year when the corporate unrmployment tax records are analyzed.
Much of the job growth in Ohio last month came in the construction, manufacturing, professional and business services and leisure and hospitality, which offset losses in trade, transportation, utilities and information.