Local, state unemployment on the rise

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

The latest figures from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services show Van Wert County came in just under the state’s overall unemployment rate in March.

Van Wert County’s jobless rate was 3.7 percent last month, while the Ohio average increased from 3.7 to 3.8 percent. Van Wert County’s jobless rate increased slightly from 3.5 percent in February. Even so, the county’s unemployment rate remains among the lowest in Ohio. Van Wert County, along with Union and Medina counties tied for the ninth lowest rate statewide.

According to ODJFS, Van Wert County had a labor force of 14,700 in March, with 14,200 workers employed. Other figures supplied by the state show the county’s unemployment rate has increased since March of 2023, when it was 3.0 percent.

Four of the five counties with the lowest jobless rate are in northwest Ohio. Once again, neighboring Mercer County had Ohio’s lowest unemployment rate, 3.1 percent in March. Putnam and Wyandot counties tied for third lowest, 3.4 percent, while Auglaize County had the fifth lowest jobless rate, 3.5 percent. Holmes County, in northeast Ohio, was second at 3.3 percent. Allen County’s March unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, 44th among Ohio’s 88 counties.

Counties with the highest rates in March were primarily in southeast Ohio. Meigs County came in at 7.3 percent, followed by Adams, Monroe and Noble counties (each 6.9 percent), and northwest Ohio’s Ottawa County, 6.8 percent.

Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 11,500 over the month, from a revised 5,632,800 in February to 5,644,300 in March. The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in March was 220,000, up from 214,000 in February. The number of unemployed has increased by 17,000 in the past 12 months from 203,000.