March unemployment numbers bring positive news for Ohio
(The Center Square) – Ohio received positive news for the first time in several months in terms of employment and labor market recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The state’s March unemployment rate of 4.7% was significantly lower than the national rate of 6%. Indiana was the only neighboring state with an unemployment rate better or even with Ohio, also coming in at 4.7%.
That’s just the beginning of the positive news, said Rea Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based think tank.
Hederman pointed to the steady labor market participation rate of 62.1% as another indicator, saying it is notably better than the national average of 61.5%.
“In another positive sign, the private sector added 11,600 jobs in March, and the numbers for February were revised to now show that Ohio lost 2,100 jobs, not the 8,400 originally reported,” Hederman said.
All the news isn’t positive, however, Hederman said.
March statistics from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services show the state is still down more than 243,000 jobs compared with March 2020, including nearly a 69,000 job loss in the leisure and hospitality sector.
“The March jobs report is reassuring, however, Ohio has a ways to go to fully recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic,” Hederman said. “As the General Assembly continues its work on the budget, lawmakers can boost economic growth and increase jobs opportunities by keeping taxes low so businesses can expand and hire new workers, targeting investment in broadband infrastructure and by working with community colleges to help workers gain the skills they need to get good paying jobs.”
Ohio ranked 16th in a new report that compared how states’ unemployment rates are bouncing back from the impact of the coronavirus.
WalletHub, a personal finance website, compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia over five key metrics and compared those numbers using March 2021 and other key dates from 2019 and 2020.
The report showed Ohio as one of the nation’s best and ranked it second recovery, comparing March 2021 with January 2020 and March 2021 with March 2020.
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