COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in six years and dropped below the national jobless rate for the first time since June.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.5 percent in February, down from 6.9 percent in January, according to data released this morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
It’s the state’s lowest jobless rate since June 2008. Ohio’s rate has dipped below the national rate, which was 6.7 percent in February.
The announcement comes on the heels of a U.S. Department of Labor report saying Ohio had the second-biggest job gains of any state in January, adding 16,700 positions.
While Gov. John Kasich has called attention to improving employment data during this election year, opponents say the state still needs to add over 138,00 jobs to recover those lost in the recession.
“Ohio is not out of the woods. Our job growth is still far too slow. We’ve underperformed the nation since the tax overhaul in 2005, since the end of the recession, over the past 12 months, and since January 2011,” says Hannah Halbert, workforce researcher with Policy Matters Ohio.
Some of those jobs disappeared in February as 4,600 fewer Ohioans were working than in January. The decline can be attributed mostly to losses in construction and government, which were slightly offset by gains in manufacturing, and the service sector.
However, the number of unemployed Ohioans also dropped by 18,000 since January.
Employment has increased by 50,000 jobs since February of 2013, powered by 40,600 service-sector jobs.