Ohio’s 5 percent unemployment rate is its lowest since 2001

The state unemployment rate in July was 5.4 percent, the same as in June. “Kentucky’s unemployment rate has now been below the national average for a full year”, economist Manoj Shanker of the OET said in the news release. The Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Labor Department have official data that shows a rate of 5.3%.

In Iowa, the rate ticked up to 3.8 percent from 3.7 percent. The national rate remained unchanged at 5.3 percent.

North Carolina has now lost most of the improvements in the unemployment rate achieved earlier this year.

The state says Ohio has 286,000 unemployed workers in July, down 10,000 from June. June marked four straight months the state’s unemployment rate has inched up.

The measure that includes the household survey estimates total employment in the state and provides the numbers to determine the unemployment rate.

Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Jesse Panuccio said, “In July, Florida saw another strong month of job creation”.

Professional and business services continue to lead the growth, adding the most jobs last month. Nebraska had the lowest, at 2.7 percent.

There have been some announcements of job losses recently, most notably the closing of the Tyson plant in Denison, which leaves 400 people out of work. The over-the-year percentage decreases occurred in West Virginia (-2.5 percent) and North Dakota (-0.6 percent).

Kentucky’s educational and health services sector declined by 3,600 positions in July 2015, but gained 8,300 jobs over the year.