Good and bad news in jobs numbers

At first glance, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services jobs report for July shows the state took another big step in the comeback from the coronavirus clobbering.

The unemployment rate tumbled to 8.9% from 11% in June, and the number of unemployed workers fell by 133,000, to 503,000. The state’s employers, meanwhile, added 62,700 jobs, led by the hardhit leisure and hospitality sector.

The state’s unemployment rate was below the U.S. rate of 10.2% in July.

But the job growth was well below the 213,000 jobs added in May, and a staggering 144,800 people dropped out of the labor force last month, state jobs data shows.

If the same number of workers were in the labor force in July as there was in February, July’s unemployment rate would have been 11.6%, said Bill Adams, a PNC Bank economist.

The 8.9% jobless rate is still twice as high as it was a year ago.

“Ohio’s economic recovery continued in July. It was slower than June but still in the right direction,” Adams said. “There is a still a long long way to go.”

Ohio lost 900,000 jobs in March and April as the state locked down the economy to limit the spread of COVID-19, closing restaurants, bars and gyms and sending office and factory workers home.

The state has recovered about 400,000 of those jobs, but the 62,700 new jobs in July were the weakest gains since the state began to reopen the economy.

“It is still an historically strong pace of employment, but it has slowed dramatically,’’ Adams said.

Another worry: The extra $600-aweek federal unemployment benefit has run out, and Congress doesn’t seem to be close on a deal to restore all or part of that.

Even with the economy reopening, many consumers haven’t resumed their pre-pandemic habits, Adams said.

“Demand can’t recover until people feel safer in public,” he said.

The jobs rally in July was led by the sector that’s been hit the hardest — leisure and hospitality.

That sector added 25,100 jobs, followed by a gain of 15,700 in private education and health care, and 14,700 jobs in professional and business services.

Government employment increased by 4,900, led by a gain of 4,500 local government jobs. A sector called other services, which covers everything from funeral homes to dog groomers, added 4,600 jobs.

Manufacturers, meanwhile, 3,700 jobs during the month.

There have been steep losses in other sectors, as well, over the past year.

The professional and business services sector has lost 70,100 jobs; government employment, 64,600; trade, transportation and utilities, 65,700; private education and health care, 50,300; and manufacturers, 48,200. mawilliams@dispatch.com @Bizmarkwilliams cut