Ohio unemployment mostly unchanged

VW independent/ODJFS information

The state’s unemployment stayed pretty much the same in January, as it was at the end of 2014.

Ohio’s unemployment rate was 5.1 percent in January 2015, mostly unchanged from a revised 5.1 percent in December 2014. Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment increased 25,100 over the month, from a revised 5,369,900 in December to 5,395,000 in January.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in January was 293,000, up 1,000 from 292,000 in December. The number of unemployed has decreased by 78,000 in the past 12 months from 371,000. The January unemployment rate for Ohio was down from 6.5 percent in January 2014.

The U.S. unemployment rate for January was 5.7 percent, up from 5.6 percent in December, and down from 6.6 percent in January 2014.

Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 25,100 over the month, from a revised 5,369,900 in December 2014 to 5,395,000 in January 2015, according to the latest business establishment survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) in cooperation with ODJFS.

Employment in goods-producing industries, at 888,600, increased 2,300 from December as gains in manufacturing (+3,600) and mining and logging (+100) surpassed losses in construction (-1,400). The private service-providing sector, at 3,754,400, added 31,000 jobs.

Employment increased in trade, transportation, and utilities (+12,300), educational and health services (+10,100), leisure and hospitality (+3,100), professional and business services (+2,700), financial activities (+1,300), other services (+900), and information (+600). Government employment, at 752,000, lost 8,200 jobs in local (-4,600), state (-3,100), and federal (-500) government.

From January 2014 to January 2015, nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 97,800. Goods-producing industries increased 17,200. Manufacturing added 12,500 jobs in durable goods (+10,800) and nondurable goods (+1,700), construction added 2,700 jobs, and mining and logging added 2,000 jobs. The private service-providing sector increased 87,600.

Employment gains in leisure and hospitality (+27,300), trade, transportation, and utilities (+21,400), professional and business services (+17,000), educational and health services (+15,600), financial activities (+5,400), and other services (+2,000) exceeded an employment decline in information (-1,100). Government employment lost 7,000 jobs in local (-4,900), state (-1,400), and federal (-700) government.