Warren, Youngstown Top State Unemployment Chart

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Unemployment rates in the Mahoning Valley’s two largest cities edged down in October, but both were again among the highest unemployment rates in Ohio.

Warren posted a 6.9% unemployment rate last month, the highest among Ohio cities tracked by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which released the October numbers Tuesday morning. Warren’s rate last month was down from 7.2% from September and from 7% in October 2018.

Youngstown reported the second-highest rate, just a tenth of a percentage rate lower than Warren, at 6.8%. That compared to 7% in September and 7.3% in October 2018.

By comparison, Ohio’s statewide unemployment rate last month was 3.9%. The U.S. rate was 3.3%.

Rates for Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties also declined but were among the highest top third among Ohio’s 88 counties.

Trumbull County reported a 5.8% unemployment rate in October, down from September and from October 2018, both 6%. Mahoning County’s unemployment rate last month was 5.5%, down from 6% in September and unchanged from October 2018.

Columbiana County’s October unemployment rate was 4.8%, unchanged from the month before up slightly from 4.7% in October 2018.

Trumbull’s unemployment rate was the seventh highest among Ohio’s 88 counties, and Mahoning’s was 12th highest. Columbiana tanked 26th among the counties.

The October unemployment rate for the Youngstown-Warren metropolitan statistical area, which covers Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County in Pennsylvania, was 5.5% In October. That is up from 5.4% a year earlier and unchanged from September’s 5.5%.

In the Ohio-only portion of the MSA, unemployment was 5.8%, up from 5.7% a year earlier but down from 5.9% in September.

Copyright 2020 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.