(the two of us) , Whenifhow, and LasVegasDave.
Posted on 07/19/2013 7:11:27 AM PDT by Deadeye Division
Ohio lost the second highest number of jobs in the country in June, just a month after posting the largest job gains, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.
Ohio lost 12,500 jobs in June. Only Tennessee, which lost 16,500 jobs, posted a larger decrease in employment. New York was third, losing 11,400 jobs.
In May, Ohio lead the nation in employment, with an increase of 32,100 jobs.
Ohio's jobless rate for June was 7.2 percent, said Benjamin Johnson, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services spokesman. That is a slight increase over May's jobless rate of 7.0 percent. August 2012 was the last time the state's unemployment rate was as high as 7.2 percent.
The Labor Department was scheduled to release the June data Friday. However, a news release said some data had "inadvertently" came out today, so department officials decided to release the report a day early.
Ohio still intends to put out its state employment data report Friday, although Johnson today did confirm some of the information from the report.
Hannah Halbert, a policy liaison for Policy Matters Ohio, which studies the state's labor market, said data released Thursday cause concerns.
"Ohio has added only 16,000 jobs over the last twelve months, a very slow 0.3 percent growth rate," she said in an email. "In the prior 12 months -- June 2011-June 2012 -- the state added more than 113,500, (or) 2.2 percent. The data has shown a volatile, up-and-down, pattern for most of this year but overall the recovery remains weak."
Ohio's employment data have shown a lot of volatility for several months. For example, in May the nation was first in job gains; but in March, the state lead the nation in employment loss with a decrease of 20,400 jobs.
Johnson said the see-sawing trend wasn't unexpected.
"We've always known that good and bad months would happen because the recovery is so slow," he said.
Rob Nichols, Gov. John Kasich's spokesman, said there were promising signs in today's numbers, including the labor force growing by 6,000 people. The labor force includes not only the employed, but people actively looking for work. The prospect of more people moving from discouraged workers to active job seekers was a positive sign, he said.
"That's encouraging to see, but it's clear we're not out of the woods yet," Nichols said in an email. "We've got to keep pushing forward with the jobs-friendly policies that we know are working -- fiscal responsibility, tax cuts, streamlined regulations, and better workforce training -- so that more Ohioans can share in the benefit of Ohio's continued economic recovery."
The labor force in June was more than 5.756 million, Johnson said.
"For point of comparison, in December the labor force was 5,729,000," he said. "That was after months and months of decline. This is a positive development; but we knew that when the labor force started to grow, it would drive the unemployment rate higher."
Discouraged workers are not counted in the jobless rate, but those actively looking for work are. If they are unsuccessful in finding work, that can increase the unemployment rate.
The state employment report will show that these were among the industries posting losses in June: local government, down 7,100 jobs; manufacturing, down 3,100 jobs; private educational services, down 2,200 jobs; and construction, down by 1,900 jobs.
Sectors showing increases, include a 3,400 increase in state government jobs; 1,500 increase in technical and professional services jobs; and a 1,900 increase in accommodation and food services jobs.
Despite these increases, George Zeller of Cleveland, an economic research analyst, said Ohio's showing isn't impressive.
"The Ohio year-over-year job growth rate for June will be 0.39%, while the year over year job growth rate for the USA in June is at 1.67 percent," he said in an email. "Thus, June 2013 would extend Ohio's unfortunate streak of job growth below the USA national average to 12 months, or one year."
Ohio Ping
Seems this is a well-kept secret. All those bogus votes for Obama in OH haven’t helped the state, have they.
Seems as though it’s getting harder for even states that may be doing things the right way at the moment to overcome the malaise that is the Obama Administration.
They are not doing this story to make Obama look bad, but the Republican Governor look bad. If the governor does not release a statement that Ohio is below the national unemployment average of 7.6 or 7.8 (I forgot exactly the number) then he is crazy.
You forget, Ohio passed Right-to-work before voters repealed it. So, is it any wonder jobs are going to Indiana and Michigan instead?
In Dayton, restaurants and stores are full; the “mini-mansions” (@ $1m-1.5m) are selling a fast as they can build them; and my subdivision, which had maybe 2 new homes added in 12 months a year ago, had added a half dozen in six months.
Dayton’s May ‘13 rate was 7.6%. Kettering is obviously doing better than Dayton city.
COALbamma
Bump
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