County one of lowest in unemployment

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Unemployment remained steady in Ohio, with the jobless rate decreasing in 85 of the state’s 88 counties. In the other three counties, including Van Wert County, unemployment remained the same in April as in March, according to April’s unemployment statistics released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The county saw a continuation of its 3.1 percent unemployment rate from March, according to the ODJFS. Statistically, according to figures provided by the ODJFS, in conjunction with the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the county’s workforce remained the same at 14,700 people, with those employed decreasing 100, from 14,300 in March to a total of 14,200 last month. Those county residents reported as unemployed remained the same at 500.

Van Wert County and surrounding counties continued to be leaders in unemployment for the state. Van Wert and three of its neighboring counties were all among the 10 counties with the lowest unemployment. Mercer County again had the lowest unemployment rate, which decreased a tenth of a percent in April, from 2.4 percent to 2.3 percent last month. Auglaize County has the third lowest unemployment rate in Ohio at 2.8 percent, which remained the same as in April, while Putnam County’s jobless rate was eighth among Ohio’s 88 counties at 3.0 percent, down two tenths of a percent over March’s 3.2 percent unemployment rate. Van Wert County had the 10th lowest unemployment in the state.

Among other neighboring counties, Paulding County saw its unemployment rate drop a tenth of a percent, from 3.6 percent to 3.5 percent in April, while Allen County’s unemployment rate decreased two-tenths of a percent, from 4.2 percent in March to 4.0 percent last month.

Statewide, in addition to Mercer, Auglaize, and Putnam counties, other counties with unemployment rates of 3.0 percent or below included Holmes County, 2.7 percent; Delaware County, 2.8 percent; Hancock and Wyandot counties, 2.9 percent; and Union County, 3.0 percent.

On the high end of the unemployment curve was Monroe County, with an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent in April. Other counties with unemployment rates at or above 6 percent included Meigs County, 6.6 percent; Noble County, 6.4 percent; Ottawa County, 6.2 percent; Jackson and Scioto counties, 6.1 percent; and Adams, Coshocton, and Pike counties, 6.0 percent.

Ohio’s comparable unemployment rate for April was 4.0 percent.