(The Center Square) – Ohio employers began hiring again in June after a month of pulling back.
But those new jobs did nothing to help the state’s unemployment rate, which has steadily risen over the past year and remained level in June.
According to figures recently released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the state’s unemployment rate held steady for the third consecutive month at 4.9%.
That rate is the sixth worst in the country, tying Oregon, New Jersey and Kentucky and falling well above the national average of 4.1%. Only Washington D.C. (5.9%), Nevada (5.4%), California (5.4%) and Michigan (5.3%) posted worse unemployment figures than Ohio.
Combined with the state’s labor force participation rate of 62.7%, the numbers show more people in Ohio are looking for jobs but are not likely to find them, according to Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute.
Despite the grim report, Ohio’s private-sector hiring grew in June by 10,400 and erased the 6,300 jobs lost in May. Throughout the year, the state averages 5,000 new hires a month, but it has not impacted the unemployment rate.
Heather Smith, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, said the increases came mostly in the service sector, and the overall numbers suggest people are leaving the labor force and not actively looking for jobs.
That leaves businesses in a difficult position.
“Businesses are reporting anxiety around the current economic situation,” Smith said. “While there has been an overall increase in jobs between May and June, businesses told the Federal Reserve that many were holding off on hiring or reducing staff until there is more certainty around economic conditions. We won’t know the whole impact of federal trade policies until years down the line, but even anticipatory actions should be taken seriously.”
