Unemployment Benefits

Ohio's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in November, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday.

(Associated Press photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent in November, with the state gaining 9,100 jobs, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday.

The jobless rate remained unchanged from October. In November 2015, Ohio's unemployment rate was 4.7 percent.

"That breaks the three-month consecutive streak of Ohio losing jobs," said George Zeller of Cleveland, an economic research analyst.

These were among the sectors that gained jobs last month: leisure and hospitality, where employment increased by 10,300; construction, up by 3,600 jobs and government employment, which increased by 1,300. Local government gained 1,100 jobs and employment in state government was up by 500. The federal government lost 300 jobs in Ohio.

Sectors losing jobs included: educational and health services, which was down 2,100 jobs and trade, transportation and utilities, where employment was down 1,100. Manufacturing and professional and business services each lost 1,000 jobs.

Despite November's increase in employment, the experts said Ohio is struggling with job growth.

"The low unemployment rate masks continued weakness in the state's labor force, which dropped again in November (-16,000)," wrote Hannah Halbert, researcher at Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal think based in Cleveland, in an email. "The state has now experienced six months of five-figure declines. Over the last twelve months Ohio's labor force has grown by a paltry 0.4 percent. Since the official start of the 2007 national recession, the Ohio labor force is down by 261,000."

Rea Hederman, executive vice president at The Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank in Columbus, also expressed concern about Ohio's labor market.

"Unfortunately, this month's report shows that Ohioans are continuing to drop out of the job market," he wrote in an email. "While this is a nationwide problem, in the last year more Ohioans have left the labor force compared to the national average. Private sector job growth over the month was actually the strongest it's been in 6 months, but that's not saying much--year-to-date, the number of private sector jobs has grown by just over half a percent. In the past 12 months, government jobs have increased more than twice as fast as the private sector, which is not sustainable."

Zeller agreed job growth has been slow.

"Ohio has gained 31,000 jobs so far this year," he said. "That is the smallest job growth figure for any year in Ohio since 2009, which was during the Great Recession."

Zeller said Ohio's job growth rate was 0.91 percent between November 2015 and November 2016. The U.S. job growth rate was 1.58 percent for the same period. He expressed concern that many of the jobs created in Ohio last month were in industries, such as leisure and hospitality, that have many low-wage workers.

"November is the fourth consecutive month in which Ohio's job growth was behind the national average," he said. "That makes 47 of the last 48 months when Ohio's job growth was below the national average. The only exception was June."

The U.S. unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in November, a 0.3 percentage point decrease from the month before, the Labor Department reported Dec. 2. The nation gained 178,000 jobs.

As is customary, the nation's jobs report is more detailed than that for Ohio and most states.

Here is a snapshot of unemployment in the U.S. in November:

Race: The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.0 percent. The white jobless rate was 4.2 percent. Hispanics had an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent. The black unemployment rate was 8.1 percent.

Gender: The unemployment rate for women was 4.2 percent and 4.3 percent for men.

Labor force: The labor force participation rate for the nation was 62.7 percent in November. The rate measures the percentage of the population that is either employed or jobless, but actively seeking work. The labor force participation rate in Ohio was 62.2 percent in November, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported Friday.

The U.S. employment-to-population ratio was 59.7 percent in November. The ratio represents the percentage of the labor force currently employed to the total working-age population. Ohio's employment-to-population ratio was 59.2 percent.

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