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State's Jobless Rate Falls, But Number Of Ohioans In Labor Force Is Still Down

Daniel Konik

The state’s jobless rate has fallen to 4.7 percent, its lowest level since last March.

January’s unemployment rate went down two tenths of a point from December’s revised rate of 4.9 percent. Hannah Halbert from the progressive think tank Policy Matters Ohio says that’s good news – but with a caveat. “It certainly suggests that the Ohio economy is starting to edge closer to full employment. But when we look at the numbers going into that rate, we see that there’s a lot of slack and a lot of work that still needs to be done,” Halbert said.

Halbert says the state’s labor force is still more than three and a half percent smaller than it was when the recession started a decade ago. And the state’s jobless rate is still more than a half a point higher than the national unemployment rate of 4.1 percent.

Contact Karen at 614-578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.
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