Ohio unemployment rises slightly from lowest mark since ’01

Another neighboring county to the east, Yolo County, was 27th on the list at 6.3 percent. It’s not a lump of coal, but it’s not exactly what state officials always wanted for Christmas either.

Despite economic headwinds including a strong dollar and lagging crop prices that have led to layoffs in the states smaller cities and towns, the state unemployment rate held steady in November at 2.9 percent, the same as it was in October.

The complete report from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services can be found below.

The Construction industry accounted for more than half of November’s net job gains with the addition of 9,000 jobs, marking that industry’s fourth straight month of growth.

Looking over the longer term, employers added 73,000 jobs between November of past year and this November, for a growth rate of 1.7 percent. The number of unemployed has decreased by 41,000 in the past 12 months from 296,000.

Over the year statewide, the unemployment rate is down seven-tenths of a percentage point from 4.3 percent, and is at the lowest level since June 2007.

Colorado’s unemployment rate in November dipped to 3.6 percent from 3.8 percent the month before and continues to sit well below the national unemployment rate of 5 percent.

Larimer County’s rate rose from 2.8 percent in October to 2.9 percent in November but was down from 3.5 percent in November a year ago.

The sectors that lost jobs were manufacturing (down 500) and other services (down 300).

“Texas employers added 179,300 jobs over the past year, highlighting the diversity of the Texas economy and job market”, said TWC Chairman Andres Alcantar. Mining and logging did not change.

Employment decreased last month in six major industry sectors and increased in four. We haven’t seen wage and salary employment at two million since June 2008, prior to the recession’s effects in our state. That’s the second-highest, along with Nevada’s, which is also at 6.5 percent. There were 34,200 more Arkansans with jobs than a year earlier. Nonfarm jobs registered a loss of 800.

The gains outweighed a huge loss in the trade, transportation, and utilities sectors, where employment declined by a 5,700 jobs, and employment in educational and health services, which fell by 900.