COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate ticked upward last month as summer came to a close and job losses in the leisure industry and manufacturing offset partially offset gains in other areas of the service sector of the state’s economy.
The jobless rate was 4.1 percent in August, up from 4.0 percent in July as employers added 3,700 jobs but 3,000 more Ohioans reported they were looking for work, according to data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
It was the first monthly increase in the unemployment rate since January and represented a 0.5 percent decline since August 2018.
The number of Ohioans who reported to a survey conducted by the state and the U.S. Department of Labor increased from a revised 5.588 million in July to 5.591 million. The number of unemployed workers increased to 238,000 from 235,000 in July.
The state has added nearly 25,000 jobs in the past year, but the unemployment rate still lags behind the U.S. unemployment rate of 3.7 percent.