Ohio’s jobless rate in November dropped to the lowest since December 2008, falling to 8.5 percent from 9 percent in October, figures released Friday show.
While the state added 6,000 jobs last month, the sizable decrease in the jobless rate from October is largely attributable to about 22,000 Ohio residents dropping out of the work force, meaning they are no longer counted as unemployed.
The one-month drop in the unemployment rate is the largest Ohio has seen since the summer of 1983, said a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. A year ago the unemployment rate was 9.6 percent.
November’s 8.5 percent figure is the lowest the state has seen since 8.1 percent in December 2008. Ohio reported jobless rates of 8.6 percent in April and May this year.
The Ohio rate fell below the U.S. unemployment rate for November of 8.6 percent.
Those figures were adjusted to take into account seasonal factors. Ohio’s unadjusted jobless rate in November was 7.6 percent, down from 8.4 percent in October and 9.3 percent a year ago.
Ohio nonfarm wage and salary employment grew from 5,107,500 in October to 5,1113,500 last month. At the same time, the number of unemployed people fell to 496,000 from 526,000 in October.
Ohio’s overall labor force dropped to 5,831,000 in November from 5,853,000 in October, indicating 22,000 people who had been seeking work and otherwise counted as unemployed had stopped looking for jobs, wrote George Zeller, economic research analyst in Cleveland.
Jobs in service industries rose 5,600 from October to 4,292,800. Trade, transportation and utilities added 3,500; government rose 1,500; financial activity was up 1,100; and educational and health services added 500. Leisure and hospitality jobs fell by 1,400 and information jobs dropped by 300.
Jobs in goods-producing industries rose just 400 to 820,700. Manufacturing jobs rose by 4,400 while there was a loss of 4,000 jobs in construction.
Zeller, in a note to clients, said that as usual the monthly jobs report contains technical contradictions and discrepancies that will be corrected in upcoming months.
Zeller also noted that starting in January, Ohio showed “a new streak of consecutive months of job growth above the USA national average.”
“Overall, today’s November 2011 Ohio figures were positive but contradictory,” Zeller wrote.
County and city unemployment rates are to be released Tuesday.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.
