Unemployment rate up in Lucas County, Toledo

7/23/2014
BLADE STAFF

Lucas County’s unemployment rate rose to 6.2 percent in June from 5.7 percent in May, state of Ohio officials said Tuesday. The jobless rate also was up for the city of Toledo, rising to 6.8 percent in June from 6.2 percent in May.

But figures from the state Department of Job and Family Services, which calculates unemployment estimates for all 88 Ohio counties and several major cities, showed that the rates were still significantly lower than a year ago.

Lucas County’s jobless rate a year ago was 8.8 percent, while Toledo’s was 9.6 percent. The figures are not seasonally adjusted, so year-over-year comparisons are a better measure than month-to-month figures, experts say.

Numbers that are not seasonally adjusted do not take into account factors such as new workers entering the work force after graduating from school, or school employees becoming temporarily unemployed as the school year ends, for example.

Toledo’s unemployment rate has risen from May to June every year since at least 2000.

According to the state estimates, Toledo’s labor force grew from 128,800 in May to 130,800 in June. The number of unemployed people climbed from 7,900 to 8,900.

Unemployment rose in 14 of 16 northwest Ohio counties. In the remaining two counties — Erie and Huron — the jobless rate was unchanged.

Fulton County had the highest unemployment rate increase from May to June. The jobless rate there rose to 6 percent from 5.1 percent. A year ago, the June rate in Fulton County was 8.2 percent.

The rate in Ottawa County rose to 5.8 percent in June from 5.6 percent in May. A year ago the county’s rate was 8.3 percent.

In Wood County, the unemployment rate increased to 5.4 percent in June from 5 percent in May. A year ago, the county jobless rate was 7.7 percent.

Unemployment rates increased in 85 of Ohio’s 88 counties in June. Rates ranged from 3.3 percent in Mercer County, along the Indiana border, to 11.7 percent in Monroe County, on the Ohio River in southeast Ohio.