COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio’s unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in April, up from 5.1 percent in March, the first increase after 21 consecutive months in which the jobless rate had either declined or remained unchanged.
The unemployment rate had been stuck at 5.1 percent since December (see graph).
According to data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, employers added 6,400 since March, to 5. 4 million, but there were also 3,000 additional workers listed as unemployed.
Leaders of a nonpartisan policy research institute say Ohio’s job gains still lag behind those of the nation as a whole and they claim Ohio still has 24,600 fewer jobs than before the recession began in December 2007.
“Ohio mirrored the nation in seeing a jobs rebound in April. However, we need more robust gains in jobs to employ all the Ohioans who need work and even reach the average national growth rate,” said Zach Schiller, research director of Policy Matters Ohio.
The monthly report shows more than 5,000 additional jobs in manufacturing and 4,500 jobs in the service sector were offset by losses in utilities, leisure and hospitality, and local government.
The state says the number of unemployed Ohioans has decreased by 39,000 in the past year as the unemployment rate fell from 5.9 percent in April 2014.
Schiller says a survey of employers by the state and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Ohio’s employment grew by 1.4 percent over the past year, compared with the national average of 2.2 percent.
The U.S. unemployment rate for April was 5.4 percent, down from 5.5 percent in March and down from 6.2 percent in April 2014.