NW Ohio region's mass-layoff filings drop

The economic health of northwest Ohio always gets expressed in numbers, so here is a key number: four.

Since Jan. 1, there have been exactly four mass-layoff notices filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services from companies in northwest Ohio.

The last one was filed five months ago; the one before that was filed six months ago.

In total, the four Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act notices filed in four northwest Ohio counties this year - Williams, Wood, Ottawa, and Lucas - affected a total of 550 employees.

Through the same period a year ago, companies in northwest Ohio counties had filed 24 such mass layoff notices, accounting for 3,510 job losses.

For all of 2009, 32 such notices, involving a total of 4,592 employees, were filed in northwest Ohio.

In Michigan, just one notice was filed covering workers in Monroe, Lenawee, or Hillsdale counties through the first half of this year, affecting 69 workers in Monroe.

That compared with six mass layoff filings for the same portion of 2009 covering 537 workers.

The law requires employers to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.

Those generally are defined as affecting more than 100 employees.

Although many employers are exempt, the notices can serve as a useful measure of the relative health of an economic sector or region.

"Manufacturing has definitely seen fairly significant improvement for Ohio, from not only not having further job losses, but having some job increases this year," said Keith Ewald, chief economist with the Ohio Bureau of Labor Market Information.

"We've seen improvements in the auto sector in particular, and the northern parts of the state have seen improvements because they're not seeing the losses of manufacturing that they were in 2009."

Some of the job losses on last year's layoff notices have been reversed. Yesterday, for example, General Motors Co. called back the last of its laid-off employees from its Toledo Powertrain plant.

Mr. Ewald said claims for unemployment compensation are easing off as well.

"It does appear that we've bottomed out in terms of the recession. We've continued to see moderate improvement as the months go on," he said.

Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:

lvellequette@theblade.com

or 419-724-6091.