Jobless rate tumbles to six-year low in Ohio

Another month, another big drop in Ohio’s unemployment rate.

The state’s jobless rate posted its third straight sharp decline last month, falling to 5.7 percent from 6.1 percent in March, according to an Ohio Department of Job and Family Services report released yesterday.

After stagnating for much of 2013, the unemployment rate has now dropped 1.7 percentage points since October, when the rate was 7.4 percent.

“I feel pretty good that we’re on the right path,” said Frank Wojcik, senior vice president of Fifth Third Bank in Columbus. “It’s good to see us … back to the levels we were at six years ago.”

The 5.7 percent rate was the lowest since February 2008, two months after the recession

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officially started. The 328,000 unemployed workers in Ohio last month were the fewest since April 2007, when the unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent.

The lower rate reflects a better economy, Wojcik said.

“With the pickup in the economy, you’re starting to see a little more confidence,” he said. “Businesses that had postponed hiring now have more confidence, and they have decided to add jobs.”

The 0.4 percentagepoint drop in the rate last month was among the best in the country, trailing only Illinois and Nevada, according to federal data released yesterday.

The federal report showed the unemployment rate fell in 43 states last month, remained steady in five states, and went up in two states. The 5.7 percent rate in Ohio keeps the state below the U.S. rate of 6.3 percent.

“This is a strong report,” said Benjamin Johnson, a Job and Family Services spokesman. “It shows the recovery is continuing.”

The drop in the unemployment rate last month resembled the results in March. More people found work, but more people dropped out of the workforce.

The report is made up of two surveys: one of households and one of employers. The survey of employers showed they added 12,600 jobs last month, while the household survey showed 12,000 more people were working.

The report also showed about 14,000 people dropped out of the labor force last month on top of the 10,000 who left in March.

“The decrease in the labor force mirrors what we’ve seen nationwide,” Johnson said.

Why people are continuing to drop out is unclear. Analysts have said it could be aging baby boomers retiring or frustrated job seekers giving up.

“It’s a little bit surprising to me the number of people who have left the workforce,” Wojcik said.

PNC Bank economist Mekael Teshome said, “In Ohio, Columbus and Cincinnati are better performing. Everybody else is struggling with demographics.”

Despite the unemployment rate being back to about where it was before the recession started, the state has yet to recover all the jobs lost during the recession.

The state has added about 300,000 jobs in the past four years but needs about 150,000 more to get back to where it was in 2006.

Given the steep drop in the unemployment rate since December, Teshome said he would not be surprised to see the rate flatten out or move up a bit in coming months.

“We may have some misses here and there, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see the unemployment rate jump up if people come back into the labor force,” he said. “The fundamental story is that the economy is healing. We have a much more balanced economy than a few years ago.”

Last month, the trade, transportation and utilities sector added 6,200 jobs, led by a big increase in truck drivers, while a category that consists of a hodgepodge of service jobs such as barbers and personal trainers added 2,900 jobs. There also was a gain of 4,600 government jobs and 2,100 manufacturing jobs.

On the downside, the private education and health-care sector cut 2,800 jobs, and the professional and business services sector lost 900 jobs.