Lucas Co., Toledo jobless rates improve in February

3/25/2014

State officials said today that area unemployment rates improved considerably in February versus the same month last year. 

Lucas County's unemployment rate was estimated at 7.3 percent in February, down two full percentage points from last year. The city's rate improved even more, falling from 10.1 percent in February, 2013, to 7.8 percent last month. The report is from the state's Department of Job and Family Services.

Jobless rates also fell from January, when the county's unemployment rate was estimated at 8.1 percent and the city's at 8.7. 

The story was the same across all of metro Toledo.

State officials said Fulton County's February jobless rate was 8.1 percent, Ottawa County's was 11.3 percent, and Wood County's was 6.3 percent. All are down from January, but more importantly unemployment rates fell by more than a full percentage point from last year in all three counties. 

Because the county-by-county rates are not seasonally adjusted, economists pay more attention to year-over-year changes than they do month-other-month.

Officials previously said the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in February was 6.5 percent, which again put it below the U.S. rate. 

Federal officials said the U.S. unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in February.