Central Ohio jobless rate jumps to 3.7%

Jobless rates in central Ohio and most of the rest of the state moved higher in June as schools let out and more people started looking for work.

The unemployment rate for the Columbus area moved up to 3.7% in June from 3.0% in May, according to Ohio Department of Job and Family Services data released Tuesday. The rate is the lowest among the state’s metro areas.

The rate is not adjusted to account for seasonal variations.

Local economist Bill Lafayette, owner of economic consulting firm Regionomics, said his seasonal adjustments show the region’s unemployment rate rising 0.1% to 3.4% in June, pushed up by a big

Source: Ohio Department of Job and Family Services

9,100-person increase in the region’s labor force.

Still, Lafayette continues to be concerned about job growth in the region.

Job growth for the first half of 2019 is up 1.3% from the same period in2018 and below where it has trended since the recession ended, he said.

“We’re kind of running in place. We’ve had slow growth,” he said, which could be because there aren’t enough people to fill job openings.

In particular, retail employment has been weak and has nearly lost all of its gains since bottoming out at 97,400 workers in January 2010, he said.

Rates moved higher for all of the state’s metro areas and 86 of the state’s 88 counties.

Mercer County in northwestern Ohio had the lowest jobless rate in the state at 2.7%, and Monroe County in eastern Ohio had the highest at 7.3%.