Ohio counties see jobless rate drop

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Unemployment rates have been on a roller coaster ride the past two months, with all of Ohio’s 88 counties experiencing significant rate increases in January and every county seeing rate decreases in February.

In Van Wert County, January unemployment rates increased 1.5 percent, from 7 percent to 8.5 percent, but then dropped nearly a full percentage point, from 8.5 to 7.6, in February. In comparison with January, workforce estimates for the county compiled in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, dropped another 100 people, from 13,800 to 13,700, while the number of county residents employed remained steady at 12,600. Unemployed county residents also showed a drop, from 1,200 to 1,000, according to labor force estimates (click here for a complete list of county civilian labor estimates).

Among neighboring counties, Mercer County again had the lowest unemployment rate, falling from 5.3 percent in January to 4.8 percent in February. Auglaize County was next lowest with a 5.8 percent jobless rate, down from 6.2 percent in January.

Putnam County’s unemployment rate fell from 7.4 percent in January to 6.8 percent in February, while Paulding County was at 7.5 percent in February, down from 8.1 percent in February.

Allen County was the only neighboring county with a higher unemployment percentage than Van Wert County. That county’s jobless rate was 8.3 percent in February, down from 9.1 percent in January.

Elsewhere around the state, unemployment rates ranged from Mercer County’s low of 4.8 percent to a high of 13.7 percent in Pike County (click here for a larger map with more information included).

Other counties below 6.5 percent in February, other than Mercer, included Delaware (5.2 percent), Holmes (5.4 percent), Auglaize, and Franklin, Hancock and Union (6.3 percent).

In addition to Pike County, Ohio counties with unemployment rates above 12 percent in February included Meigs and Morgan (12.8 percent), Adams (12.6 percent), and Huron and Ottawa (12.2 percent).