COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate, which has not fluctuated by more than 0.6 points in the last two years, remained at 4.9 percent in November, unchanged from October, according to data released by the state on Friday.
The November rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than the 4.7 percent reported in November 2015. The jobless rate has moved narrowly between a high of 5.2 percent in November 2014 and a low-water mark of 4.6 percent in August and September of 2015, according to data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The state’s labor force has grown by only 2,000 people during the same period but employers have added 21,000 jobs and the number of unemployed workers fell by 19,000, according to seasonally-adjusted figures.
Since the official start of the 2007 national recession 261,000 workers have left Ohio’s labor pool, according to the nonpartisan think-tank Policy Matters Ohio.
Reversing a trend of three straight months of job losses, Ohio employers added 9,100 jobs in November with major gains in construction and leisure and hospitality helping to compensate for losses in other sectors.
The number of workers unemployed was 278,000, down 2,000 from 280,000 in October.
The number of unemployed has increased by 9,000 in the past 12 months from 269,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate for November was 4.6 percent.