Ohio By the Numbers - September 2014

Labor Force Sees Biggest Increase of the Year, Private Sector Up 3,000 Jobs

The latest Ohio By the Numbers report (now available on The Buckeye Institute's website) shows that Ohio's private sector economy saw modest improvement in September, picking up 3,000 jobs. Meanwhile, the government sector also added 3,000 jobs. However, local governments lost 3,400 jobs in September, partially offsetting the large unadjusted gains seen in August. Year over year, local government employment is up by 1,000 jobs since September 2013.

The unemployment rate ticked down to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent in August. This small decline in the unemployment rate coincided with particularly large growth in Ohio's labor force--over 11,000 people were added to the labor force. Unless this figure is subsequently revised substantially downward, the gain in September will stand as the largest one-month labor force gain since well before the Great Recession in October 2006. It also put an end to five straight months of decline in the labor force. Despite this gain, Ohio's labor force is still down 31,000 people since the beginning of 2014.

Though it is only one month, the declining unemployment rate combined with the increasing labor force indicates that the economy could be picking up steam as people re-enter the labor force and find jobs.

• Overall highlights from the report:

• Ohio gained 3,000 private sector and 3,000 total government jobs in September;

• Ohio's unemployment rate dipped slightly to 5.6 percent;

• Ohio ranked 28th nationally in private sector job growth since January 2010, increasing 7.5 percent;

• Ohio currently ranks 47th nationally with a 10 percent growth in private sector jobs since January of 1990 (top-ranked Nevada grew 99 percent during the same time span).

For the full report, please click here.

For the full labor force update, click here.