COLUMBUS — Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.4 percent in January, a slight dip from the 9.5 percent revised December rate and the lowest monthly rate in nearly two years since unemployment was at 9.1 percent in February 2009.

The January rate marked the 11th straight month that the rate had dropped.

Data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services also showed that the number of Ohioans employed increased by 31,900 in January to 5,066,100, up from 5,034,200 in December. Over the past 12 months, employment has increased by 57,000 jobs.

Also, in January there were 551,000 unemployed workers, down from 560,000 in December. Over the past 12 months the number of unemployed has decreased by 75,000 from 626,000.

Ohio’s January unemployment rate was down from 10.6 percent in January 2010.

The national rate for February, also released Friday, was 8.9 percent, down from 9 percent in January. The national December rate was 9.4 percent.

Economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics in Pepper Pike, a Cleveland suburb, said the state and national trends both are in the right direction for an improving economy.

Mayland called it “steady, if a little bit slow, progress.”

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.