Good economic news locally, as Richland County’s unemployment rate dropped a bit last month according to figures release earlier this week by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in February 2017, up from 5.0 percent in January 2017. Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 15,200 over the month, from a revised 5,506,800 in January to 5,522,000 in February.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in February was 294,000, up 7,000 from 287,000 in January. The number of unemployed has increased by 9,000 in the past 12 months from 285,000. The February unemployment rate for Ohio was up from 5.0 percent in February 2016.
The U.S. unemployment rate for February 2017 was 4.7 percent, 0.1 percentage points lower than in January 2017, and 0.2 percentage points lower than in February 2016.
The February unemployment rate for Richland County was 6.3 percent, down from 6.7 percent in January; the work force grew from 48,800 to 49,700. Adjacent counties had the following reported rates:
Ashland 6.0
Crawford 6.9
Huron 8.9
Morrow 5.9
Knox 5.0
The highest rate in Ohio was 11.8 percent in Monroe County in Ohio’s southeast; the lowest was 37 in Mercer County.
The map may be viewed at this location online.
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