The state’s jobless rate was 5% for January, which is unchanged from December. But officials say there’s good news in that number.
Jon Keeling with the Department of Job and Family Services says the number of Ohioans in the labor force and looking for work ticked up quite a bit last month. “And usually when that happens, where that many more people are looking for work, that means the unemployment rate will usually go up. But since the rate stayed the same, that means a lot of those people that were looking for work got work,” Keeling said.
The number comes out as JobsOhio, Gov. John Kasich’s job creating entity, reported a down year for 2016. The jobless rate for this January was the same as the rate a year ago, and is two tenths of a point higher than the national unemployment rate.
