Unemployment decreases in county, state

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert County followed a trend that saw all 88 Ohio counties with a decrease in unemployment in March, according to information released on Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The county decreased four-tenths of a percent, from 3.5 percent in February to 3.1 percent last month. Statistically, according to information released by the ODJFS, in conjunction with the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, Van Wert County’s workforce numbers jumped dramatically, increasing 500 people from February’s 14,200 total county workforce to 14,700 last month. Employment also increased 600 people, from 13,700 two months ago to 14,300 in March. Those unemployed remained the same at 500.

Statewide, Van Wert County had the eighth lowest unemployment rate of Ohio’s 88 counties. Mercer County was the lowest at 2.4 percent, down a half-percent from 2.9 percent in February, while four other counties had jobless rates at or below 3.0 percent. Other than Mercer County, those counties were Auglaize County, 2.8 percent; Holmes County, 2.9 percent; and Delaware and Hancock, 3.0 percent.

At the high end were six counties with unemployment rates above 7.0 percent. Those include Monroe County, which was the highest Ohio county at 8.5 percent; Meigs and Noble counties, 7.4 percent; Morgan and Ottawa counties, 7.2 percent; and Adams County, 7.1 percent.

Among neighboring counties, Mercer County was first, Auglaize County second, then Van Wert and Putnam counties third at 3.1 percent, Paulding County was fourth at 3.6 percent (down a half-percent from 4.1 percent in February), and Allen County last at 4.2 percent (down from 4.6 percent in February).

Van Wert and all of its neighboring counties are below Ohio’s March unemployment rate of 4.3 percent.