County’s jobless rate 6.7 percent in Oct.

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Unemployment in Van Wert County has been up and down the past two months, according to data released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Two months of unemployment statistics were released on Tuesday, instead of one, because of delays in compiling data caused by the shutdown of the federal government two months ago.

Unemployment in September increased three-tenths of a percent in Van Wert County in September, from 6.7 percent to 7.0 percent, but then dropped back to 6.7 percent in October, according to data compiled by the ODJFS, in conjunction with the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those unemployed in October totaled 900, after first increasing to 1,000 in September. The county’s workforce was again estimated at 14,000 people, with 13,100 of those listed as employed.

Among neighboring counties, Mercer County again had the lowest unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, unchanged from August. That jobless rate was good enough to again give Mercer County the honor of having the lowest unemployment in the state.

Auglaize County dropped a tenth of a percent, 5.2 percent to 5.1 percent, from August to October, while Putnam County’s unemployment rate increased from 5.7 percent in August to 5.9 percent in October, although that was a decrease from September’s 6.0 percent jobless rate. Paulding County showed a decrease of a tenth of a percent from August to October, with October’s unemployment rate at 6.4 percent, down from 6.5 percent in August. September’s jobless rate in that county was 6.8 percent.

Allen County again had the highest unemployment among neighboring counties, with a rate of 7.7 percent in October, down from 8.0 percent in September, but unchanged from August’s 7.7 percent unemployment rate (click here for civilian labor estimates for all 88 counties in September and October).

Statewide, in addition to Mercer County, those counties with unemployment rates under 5.5 percent included Holmes (4.7 percent), Geauga (5.0 percent), Auglaize, and Delaware and Union (5.2 percent).

The counties with the highest unemployment included Meigs County, at 12.0 percent, followed by Pike (11.9 percent), Monroe (11.6 percent), Scioto (11.2 percent) and Adams (10.3 percent).