Rea Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute and vice president of policy, said the numbers show that Ohio’s economy is recovering from the impact of the pandemic.
But the state still has a long way to go.
“There are 492,600 fewer jobs compared to the previous year and the restaurant and hotel industry has been decimated -- losing one out of every four jobs compared to June of 2019, a quarter of all private sector job loss in Ohio,” Hederman said in a release.
The June unemployment rate for Ohio last year was a far different 4.1%.
Ohio’s non-agricultural wage and salary employment grew 208,000 over the month of June, from a revised 4,825,200 in May to 5,033,200 in June 2020, the state said.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in June was 631,000, down 166,000 from 797,000 in May, the state also said.
The number of unemployed has increased by 392,000 in the past year from 239,000, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related government shut-down and social distancing orders.
Cleveland economist George Zeller said the June report shows a “continuing catastrophic pattern.”
“The 10.9% current Ohio unemployment rate remains high at one in every 11 Ohio workers is currently jobless,” he said.
Consumer data web site Wallethub ranked Ohio 34 of 50 states in a ranking of states whose employment is bouncing back fastest. Kentucky topped the list with a jobless rate of 4.8 percent in June, according to Wallethub.
The U.S. unemployment rate for June was 11.1%, down from 13.3% in May, and up from 3.7% in June 2019.
Employment in Ohio goods-producing industries, at 876,300, increased 29,600 over the month of June, with gains in manufacturing (+28,900 jobs added) and construction (+700), the state said.
The private service-providing sector, at 3,432,800, increased 165,700 as gains in leisure and hospitality (+82,300), trade, transportation, and utilities (+29,300), educational and health services (+27,900), other services (+15,800), professional and business services (+10,800), and information (+300) exceeded losses in financial activities (-700).
Government employment, at 724,100, increased 12,700, the state said.
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