© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Number of Ohio Jobs Is Up, But So is Unemployment

Ben Johnson
LinkedIn

  The state's unemployment rate ticked up slightly last month to 4.7 percent. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles has details.

Ben Johnson with the Department of Job and Family Services says the increase in the jobless rate is not because of massive job losses. He says 16,000 Ohioans started looking for work in December but only 2,000 of those found work.

“When the labor force is growing, the unemployment rate can temporarily increase and it’s actually good news, not bad news, because growth in the labor force is something we want to see.”

In a written statement, Gov. John Kasich said federal work figures show Ohio has created more than 400,000 new private sector jobs since he took office in 2011.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.