Ohio’s unemployment rate rises to 5.4% in July
Ohio’s unemployment rate edged higher in July even as the state’s employers added 19,200 jobs during the month.
The state’s unemployment rate climbed to 5.4% last month, up from 5.2% in June and the highest rate since last December when the rate was 5.6%, the Ohio Department of Job and Family
Services said Friday. The U.S. unemployment rate also was 5.4% in July.
The unemployment rate climbed as more people joined the labor force and not all of them found work, state data show.
The labor force increased by 24,600 people last month, but it remains nearly 300,000 workers — 5% of all workers — below where it was before the pandemic struck.
Employers across a variety of industries have complained for months about a shortage of workers.
The state has ordered those getting unemployment benefits to resume searching for work to continue to receive benefits, and Gov. Mike Dewine ended extra federal pandemic unemployment benefits of $300 per week in June.
Even with that, employers have struggled to fill openings and say applicants routinely don’t show up for inter
Interstate 71 to the east and Interstates 70 and 71 to the south, from 1,261 to 1,253.
Conte said there are currently 15 projects with 1,300 housing units under construction Downtown. He said that with the housing shortage across central Ohio, those units will be in demand.
“I think those units will fill up,” he said.
Those projects include a couple by the Edwards Companies: the conversion, already underway, of 14 floors of the PNC Plaza building at 155 E. Broad St. into 120 residences and a 13-story, 133-unit apartment building at 195 E. Broad St.
Conte said he believes the conversion of office buildings into residential space will continue. Buildings that have small floor plates lend themselves to residential conversion, he said.
“If you look at what’s been built in the Short North, the floor plates are just as small,” he said.
Also in the pipeline Downtown: a sixstory, 145-unit apartment building now under construction at Grant Avenue and Oak Street by the Pizzuti Companies. And the Columbus Downtown Development Corporation plans to build a $20-million, 93-unit affordable apartment complex at East Town Street and South Washington Avenue near Topiary Park.
The development corporation is focusing on creating more affordable housing options Downtown after Guy Worley stepped down in May under pressure from Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, a board shakeup and the appointments of Amy Taylor as president and Greg Davies as CEO.
Taylor said she remains bullish on Downtown’s growth because of the amenities it has, including parks such as the Scioto Mile and Topiary Park. “There is a capacity to grow from what we’ve seen,” she said. The downtown development corporation is overseeing the development of 26 acres just west of COSI on the Scioto Peninsula across from Downtown, including 1,800 residences.
In 2002, former Mayor Michael B. Coleman set a goal of 10,000 Downtown residents by 2012. The city created tax incentives to boost Downtown residential projects that still remain.
Downtown’s population peaked at
29.845 in 1950, said Michael Wilkos, senior vice president of community impact at the United Way of Central Ohio who has studied population data and demographic changes in the Columbus area.
Wilkos said he believes the trend in Columbus and across the country will be for continuing residential demand in downtown areas because empty nesters and young people like the lifestyle and conveniences such as restaurants and entertainment.
“Lots of people work somewhere else but live Downtown,” he said.
Even Youngstown – where the population dipped 10%, to just more than 60,000, between 2010 and 2020 – saw a growth in population in the downtown area, he said. Population in the census tract that includes downtown Youngstown grew by 15%, from 3,052 to 3,506.
Brad Dehays, founder of Connect Realty, is developing four projects with 150 units Downtown, which are either already under construction or in the planning phase.
“I think for the next 12 months we’re going to see momentum pick up,” said Dehays, who said the COVID-19 pandemic and last year’s protests did wound Downtown. “There still are a significant number of projects in the pipeline. I see a majority of those projects getting built. They’re some of the most unique products in central Ohio.”
Tony Lococo, president of the Downtown
Residents Association of Columbus, said he doesn’t see Downtown residential growth slowing because of the demand for urban living, and believes office workers will be back in two years.
“People want to live in an urban atmosphere,” Lococo said.
People such as Emma Mulvaney. She has lived Downtown for about three years, moving there so she could be close to Capital University Law School. She rented first, but eventually bought a condominium.
Mulvaney is a lawyer and her law firm is Downtown, but she has been working from home. Yet she likes the flexibility of walking to work when she must go in.
“Convenience plays into staying Downtown,” said Mulvaney, 26, as she walked her two dogs down Gay Street earlier this week. So do easy access to restaurants and places such as Pins Mechanical, she said, a bar that features duckpin bowling.
Rob Vogt, managing partner of Vogt Strategic Insights, a Columbus-based real-estate research firm, agrees that he believes people will feel comfortable returning to the office once the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us. That said, he still expects Downtown to see moderate residential growth.
“We’ve got such a housing shortage,” Vogt said of Columbus. mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik