When the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services released its monthly employment numbers for Ohio for May, the news was good both statewide and locally.
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in May 2019, down from a revised 4.2 percent in April. Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment decreased 3,900 over the month, from a revised 5,597,500 in April to 5,593,600 in May 2019.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in May was 239,000, down 8,000 from 247,000 in April. The number of unemployed has decreased by 25,000 in the past 12 months from 264,000. The May unemployment rate for Ohio decreased from 4.6 percent in May 2018.
Rates ranged from 2.1% in western Ohio’s Mercer County to 6.7% in Monroe County.
The U.S. unemployment rate for May was 3.6 percent, unchanged from April, and down from 3.8 percent in May 2018.
Richland County saw some 51,400 persons employed out of a total workforce of 53,200, for an unemployment rate of 3.5%. This is up one-tenth of a percent from the previous month, but down seven-tenths of a percent from May 2018.
As for the City of Mansfield, the rate stood at 4.0% as compared to 3.8% in April and 4.9 percent last year.
Other area county rates included:
- Ashland 3.3
- Crawford 3.8
- Huron 4.0
- Knox 3.1
- Morrow 3.1
