COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate held steady in July at 4.0 percent as employers added thousands of jobs across multiple sectors of the economy.
The state unemployment rate has not been below 4.0 percent since 2001.
Ohio employers added 4,500 jobs in July, buoyed by hiring in manufacturing, leisure and hospitality and local government.
Ohio has added 22,500 jobs in the last year but, if the rate of growth continues, Hannah Halbert, project director with the progressive Policy Matters Ohio, says 2019 will be the worst non-recession year for job growth since 2005.
Employment increased from a revised 5.588 million in June to 5.593 million in July, according to data released Friday morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The number of unemployed Ohioans increased by 2,000 from 233,000 in June but the number of unemployed has decreased by 28,000 in the past 12 months.
The U.S. unemployment rate for July was 3.7 percent, unchanged from June, and down from 3.9 percent in July 2018.