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Ohio Jobless Rate is Unchanged

photo of Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

The state’s jobless rate was 5 percent for January, which is unchanged from December.

Jon Keeling with the Department of Job and Family Services says the number of Ohioans in the labor force and looking for work ticked up quite a bit last month.

“And usually when that happens, where that many more people are looking for work, that means the unemployment rate will usually go up. But since the rate stayed the same, that means a lot of those people that were looking for work got work.”

The number comes out as JobsOhio, Gov. John Kasich’s job-creating entity, reported a down year for 2016. The jobless rate for this January was the same as the rate a year ago, and is two tenths of a point higher than the national unemployment rate. 

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.