Crawford County jobless rate edges upward
BUCYRUS - Crawford County's unemployment rate ticked up a notch in October to 5.0 percent, higher than in all surrounding counties.
But not too much significance should be read into the slight increase. For one, it mirrors the behavior of the jobless rates in about a fourth of Ohio's 88 counties last month, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. It also reflects a slight increase in Crawford County's civilian labor force in October. And the 5.0 rate is still among the lowest seen here since the Great Recession of 2008.
The county's October jobless rate of 5.0 percent is up from the September rate of 4.8 percent, our lowest since the recession. And it compares to a rate of 6.2 percent last October. However, it's higher than the unemployment rates in Huron County (4.9 percent), Richland (4.8), Marion (4.4), Morrow (4.1), Seneca (3.8) and Wyandot County (3.0 percent, one of the lowest in the state), according to the ODJFS.
Across the state, jobless rates on October ranged from a high of 8.1 percent in Monroe County down to 2.8 percent in Mercer County. The five counties with the highest unemployment rates last month were centered in southeastern Ohio, from the Wheeling, W.Va., area southwest to Portsmouth. The five counties with the lowest rates ranged across the northern half of the state.
The ODJFS said unemployment rates decreased in 45 Ohio counties last month, increased in 23 counties, and did not change in 20 others. The state's overall jobless rate in October was 4.4 percent, 0.6 percent lower than the Crawford County rate, and down slightly from Ohio's September jobless rate of 4.5 percent.
The ODJFS said that from October 2014 through last month, trade, transportation and utilities saw the most added jobs of any employment sector in the state at 18,900, followed by educational and health services (17,400 jobs) and manufacturing (15,200). Construction saw the most job losses during the same period (1,500 jobs), followed by mining and logging (1,400) and the federal government (1,200).
The national unemployment rate last month was 5.0 percent, identical to Crawford County's rate, down from 5.1 percent in September and from 5.7 percent in October 2014.
Crawford County's post-recession jobless rate peaked at 16.3 percent in June 2009, and didn't drop back into the single digits again until November 2011. It averaged 6.5 percent last year and so far this year is averaging 5.5 percent.
The county's civilian labor force stood at 19,100 last month, the ODJFS said, up from 19,000 in September, which was a post-recession low for the county. When the recession hit in 2008, Crawford County had a labor force of 22,400 people.
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