Unemployment rate in state reaches low for pandemic
Ohio’s unemployment rate hit a pandemic low in February, but the jobs hole that the state is in from COVID-19 got bigger.
The state’s jobless rate fell to 5% last month from 5.3% in January, the lowest rate since last March, when the rate was 4.9%, according to Ohio Department of Job and Family Services data released Friday. The U.S. rate in February was 6.2%.
Employers cut 8,400 jobs last month, led by a loss of 12,700 jobs in the sector that covers private education and health care.
Ohio, which lost nearly 900,000 jobs last March and April, now needs 314,000 new jobs to get back to where it was before the coronavirus largely shut down the economy.
The report also shows the job gains have slowed in recent months, with Ohio employers adding just 28,700 jobs since September.
The monthly jobs report is made up of two surveys: one of employers and a separate one of households that determines the unemployment rate, and both surveys don’t always move in the same direction.
In the case of February, the unemployment rate dropped because there were fewer people in the workforce, the state data show.
The labor force fell by 12,700 workers last month and is off more than 100,000 workers since the pandemic started.
The February number likely was dragged down by the cold and snow, said Bill Adams, a PNC Bank economist.
Adams said the big thing he is watching now are coronavirus caseloads and the vaccination rate. The more success in driving down cases and getting more people vaccinated, the better job growth will be, he said.
“It’s still all about the pandemic,” he said.
With vaccination rates going up and the weather improving in March, jobs should follow, Adams said.
People will feel more comfortable dining in restaurants, returning to the office and sending their children back to daycare, he said. Patients will resume regular visits to doctors and dentists, and students will go back to college.
“It tells us more about when we’ll see that side of the economic recovery,” Adams said.
The battered leisure and hospitality sector has been the hardest-hit sector of the economy from the pandemic. It has lost 89,600 jobs over the past year, though it did gain 4,300 jobs during February.
But the job losses have cut across a wide swath of the economy.
The sector for private education and health care has cut 59,100 jobs over the past year, and government employment has lost 50,200 jobs over the past year, primarily in local and state government.
The professional and business services sector lost 36,800 jobs over the past year and manufacturers cut 36,600 jobs.
A broad sector called other services that includes everything from dry cleaners to pet care cut 22,800 jobs. mawilliams@dispatch.com @Bizmarkwilliams