Thursday, May 28th, 2020
Jobless rates rise in area
From staff reports
Mercer County no longer has the lowest unemployment rate in the state.
Pandemic-caused job losses caused Mercer County to drop from the state's lowest rate of unemployment to 14th in a three-way tie with Clermont and Fairfield counties. Mercer County had maintained the lowest unemployment rate in the state since March 2016.
Mercer County's unemployment rate soared from 3.5% in March to 14% in April, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Auglaize County's unemployment rate skyrocketed from 4% in March to 19.5% in April. It dropped from the sixth-lowest rate of unemployment in the state to 61st.
Rates in neighboring counties increased across the board. Allen County's unemployment rate jumped from 5.7% to 20.6%.
The rate in Shelby County increased from 4.6% to 21.7%, and Van Wert County's rate increased from 4.4% to 16.2%.
Ohio's unemployment rate soared to 16.8% in April, a significant increase from a revised 5.8% in March, and up from March 2019's rate of 4.1%.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in April was 957,000, up 623,000 from 334,000 in March.
The U.S. unemployment rate for April was 14.7%, up from 4.4% in March and 3.6% in April 2019.
