COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate reached a three-year high in August of 5.4 percent, up from 5.2 percent in July as the number of unemployed Ohioans increased for the third straight month while the number of employed workers and the size of the labor force declined.
Employers added 5,200 over the month to 5.5 million while the number of workers seeking jobs increased 11,000 and the work force shrunk from 5.77 million in July to 5.75 million, according to data release Friday from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The unemployment rate was 0.6 percent higher than in August 2016.
The U.S. unemployment rate for August was 4.4 percent, up from 4.3 percent in July and down from 4.9 percent in August 2016.
RELATED: A Census Bureau report showed the median household income in Ohio is the highest ever.
Since the depths of the recession, in early 2010, Ohio has regained approximately 330,000 of the 380,000 jobs lost between 2001, when the unemployment rate was 3.8 percent of a 5.8-million-member work force, and 2010 when the jobless rate peaked at 11 percent.
August saw gains in construction, manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and other service-sector areas but saw 5,900 jobs in the government sector disappear, along with 5,500 in professional and business services and trade, transportation and utilities.