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The numbers aren’t seasonally adjusted, and economists typically caution that the figures are based on a small sample size and often fluctuate significantly from month to month. However the latest figures are a sign that the state’s economy is slowing, said Orphe Divounguy, an economist with the conservative Buckeye Institute.
“The economy is cooling down, the Federal Reserve is raising interest rates,” Divounguy said. “I wouldn’t say we should be worried but we should have some concerns going forward and we should try to implement the best policies now so that we don’t erase all the gains we made since the end of the last recession.”
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The state’s figures show Clark County’s labor force, which includes the number of people working and looking for work, remained stable at 62,300 workers compared to December. That figure was 63,100 in January last year.
The number of people listed as employed in Clark County was 58,600 in January, compared to 59,400 at the same time last year.
In Champaign County, employment was listed at 18,400, down about 400 people compared to the same time last year.
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Goods-producing industries, which includes manufacturing and construction, was a bright spot in the latest state numbers, Divounguy said. That sector added 7,800 jobs in construction and 1,900 in manufacturing.
“Whenever the consumption of durable goods picks up, it means we’re investing,” Divounguy said.
Ohio lost jobs in industries like education, health services, and leisure and hospitality. Overall, the state shed 2,100 jobs in January, bucking a national trend. Ohio’s unemployment rate remained flat at 5 percent.
At the state level, 2016 was the worst year for job growth in Ohio since the end of the Great Recession, said Hannah Halbert, a workforce researcher at left-leaning Policy Matters Ohio. She also raised concerns that many of the jobs being created tend to be in industries that don’t pay high wages.
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“Seven of Ohio’s 10 largest job categories pay so little that a family of three likely qualifies for food assistance,” Halbert said. “We have some pretty real problems, not just in terms of job growth but job quality, access to post-secondary education and whether that’s affordable. Our tax policy has promised more robust job growth and in fact what it looks like is happening is we’ve sent away revenue in the form of these tax cuts that we could otherwise be using to address these kinds of problems.”
The U.S. overall added 227,000 jobs in January, and the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, a slight increase compared to 4.7 percent in December.
Unemployment rates:
Clark County:
January 2016 — 5.9 percent
December 2016 — 4.9 percent
January 2017 — 6 percent
Champaign County
January 2016 — 4.9 percent
December 2016 — 4.1 percent
January 2017 — 4.9 percent
Source: Ohio DJFS
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The Springfield News-Sun provides unmatched coverage of jobs and the economy in Clark and Champaign Counties, including stories digging into monthly employment figures.
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