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Employment, Economic Indicators Improve in Area
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Unemployment rates edged down across the region again in October, and were down markedly from the same period a year ago.
Mahoning County's October unemployment rate was 6.6%, down from 6.9% in September and from 8.6% in October 2011, reports the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Trumbull County's unemployment rate slipped to 7.8% in October from 7.9% a month earlier, and was down from 8.7% a year ago. Columbiana County's 7.0% rate in October compared to 7.3% in September and 9.4% in October 2011.
“It was good to see the jobless rate decline in all area counties last month, and I am encouraged that our local rate remains well below the national average,” said Tom Humphries, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. “As we know, over the last 30 years, the metro area nearly always topped the national average in joblessness. It’s good to be on the other side of the line.”
The national unemployment rate was 7.9% in October.
The jobless rates in Youngstown and Warren also fell in October, in Youngstown down to 8.6% in October, down from 8.8% in September and nearly two points below the 11.4% rate in October 2011, and in Warren down to 9.0% in October from 9.2% in September and from 10.1% in October 2011.
The Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses Mahoning and Trumbull counties in Ohio and Mercer County, Pa., posted an October unemployment rate of 7.4%, down from 7.5% in September and 8.7% in October 2011. The Ohio-only portion of the MSA reported an unemployment rate of 7.2% in October, down from from 8.6% in October 2011. .
Employment in the area improved in October with 248,400 employed, up 900 from September and 3,500 from a year earlier, the chamber noted in its monthly news release that charts local economic indicators. So far this year, employment is up 1.4% over 2011.
Among other indicators the chamber cited, manufacturing jobs in the MSA last month declined 400 from September but were up 600 from a year earlier. Monthly job gains occurred in education and health services and government.
In addition, new residential construction permits increased 4.8% from August to September and were up 83.3% from a year ago. Housing permit values declined slightly from August to September but were up 61.2% from September 2011.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.