COLUMBUS – Experiencing a hiring slowdown that plagued the entire nation during the bitterly cold winter months, Ohio’s unemployment rate ticked upward to 4.7 percent in January after being steady at 4.6 percent for the previous nine months.
Ohio employers added 20,300 over the month, from a revised 5.58 million in December to 5.60 million, according to a survey of businesses conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in January increased by 2,000 to 269,000.
The January unemployment rate for Ohio increased from 4.5 percent in January 2018.
Nationwide, hiring tumbled in February, with U.S. employers adding just 20,000 jobs, the smallest monthly gain in nearly a year and a half but the unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent, near the lowest level in five decades.
The slowdown in hiring might have been caused by harsh winter weather, the partial shutdown of the government and a slowdown in consumer spending, which might have been the result of both of the other factors.
Gains in manufacturing outpaced losses in construction in Ohio while the service and government sectors added 19,600 jobs.
Ohio added 55,500 jobs over January a year ago after a year that saw the state’s 2.1 job growth rebound to a robust 2.1 percent.