County jobless rate shows decrease

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert County, like 78 of Ohio’s 88 counties, saw its unemployment rate decrease again during September of this year.

The county’s jobless rate in September was 6.7 percent, down a tenth of a percent from August’s 6.8 percent rate, but this time above the state’s unemployment rate of 6.5 percent.

According to figures released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and compiled in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, Van Wert County’s labor force increased from 14,000 people to 14,100, while those employed increased to 13,200, and unemployed county residents decreased from 1,000 to 900 during the month.

It was a scenario that played out in all but 10 counties statewide, and in all but one of Van Wert’s neighboring counties. Mercer County again led the state with an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent, down from 4.1 percent in August, while Auglaize County was next at 4.9 percent, a decrease of three-tenths of a percent from August’s 5.2 percent rate. Putnam County was just a tenth of a percent behind at 5.0 percent, down from 5.2 percent in August, while Paulding County’s unemployment rate in September was the only one that stayed the same, at 6.3 percent. Allen County was the highest among neighboring counties, at 6.8 percent for the month, down from 7.2 percent in August.

Elsewhere around the state, two others counties, in addition to Mercer, Auglaize, and Putnam, had unemployment rates at or below 5 percent in September. Those included Holmes, at 4.4 percent; and Delaware, at 4.8 percent.

At the other end of the state’s jobless situation, eight counties had unemployment rates above 9 percent for September. Those counties, all in southern or southeastern Ohio, included Pike County, at 11.5 percent; Meigs, 10.7 percent; Jefferson, 10.6 percent; Clinton, 9.8 percent; Adams, 9.6 percent; Morgan, 9.4 percent; and Vinton, 9.1 percent (click here for a more complete map in PDF format).

The individual county unemployment figures are based on 2011 benchmarks and geared to county of residence, not the county in which a person works. Unemployment rates for all Ohio counties, as well as cities with populations of 50,000 or more, are presented in the monthly ODJF’s Civilian Labor Force Estimates publication.

This information and the monthly statistical summaries it is based on are also available at http://ohiolmi.com/laus/releases.htm.