Unemployment rises slightly in Ohio

SANDUSKY — Ohio's unemployment rate rose slightly during December, according to new numbers released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Local numbers released Tuesday also showed that Ottawa County had the second-highest unemployment rate among Ohio's 88 counties. Ohio's unemployment rate was 3.7% in December, up from 3.6% in December. But it's lower than the 4.1% recorded for December 2022. The U.S. unemployment rate in December 2023 was 3.7%. That's unchanged from November 2023 but up from 3.5% in December 2022. Among Ohio's counties, unemployment ranged from a high of 5.8% in Monroe County to a low of 1.8% in Mercer County. Among local counties, Ottawa County had an unemployment rate of 5.5%, while Huron County was 4.7%, Erie County was 4.1%, and Sandusky County was 3.3%. Ohio had 214,000 unemployed workers in December, up from 212,000 in November. Julie Su, the acting U.S. secretary of labor, said in a statement that the latest national figures show that the U.S. economy remains strong. "The American economy added 216,000 jobs in December, and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%, continuing the longest stretch of unemployment below 4% in more than 50 years. Today's numbers demonstrate an economy that's growing at a strong and steady pace, which was a consistent story throughout 2023," Su said. "In the past year, jobs grew by an average of 225,000 a month, totaling 2.7 million jobs created in 2023. We also experienced this sustainable growth across many industries. For example, in construction, an average of 16,000 jobs were created each month last year, and manufacturing job growth remained steady throughout 2023. "In addition, last year, we marked historic milestones. Labor force participation among prime-age women hit an unprecedented high, and the annual rate of unemployment for Black workers was 5.5%, the lowest annual unemployment rate for Black workers since we started tracking this data," Su said.