Ohio and U.S. Employment Situation (Seasonally Adjusted)

Ohio's unemployment rate was 8.4% in September 2020, down from 8.9% in August. Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 41,500 over the month, from a revised 5,146,700 in August to 5,188,200 in September 2020.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in September was 472,000, down from 510,000 in August. The number of unemployed has increased by 232,000 in the past 12 months from 240,000. The September unemployment rate for Ohio increased from 4.1% in September 2019.

The U.S. unemployment rate for September was 7.9%, down from 8.4% in August, and up from 3.5% in September 2019.

Total Nonagricultural Wage and Salary Employment (Seasonally Adjusted)

Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 41,500 over the month, from a revised 5,146,700 in August to 5,188,200 in September, according to the latest business establishment survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) in cooperation with ODJFS.

Employment in goods-producing industries, at 886,000, increased 3,500 over the month with gains in manufacturing (+3,100), construction (+300), and mining and logging (+100). The private service-providing sector, at 3,565,900 increased 34,900 with gains in leisure and hospitality (+12,400), professional and business services (+9,600), trade, transportation, and utilities (+5,600), educational and health services (+2,800), other services (+2,800), information (+1,300), and financial activities (+400). Government employment, at 736,300, increased 3,100 as gains in local government (+8,300) exceeded losses in state (-3,500) and federal (-1,700) government.

From September 2019 to September 2020, nonagricultural wage and salary employment decreased 403,700. Employment in goods-producing industries decreased 53,700. Manufacturing lost 38,200 jobs as losses in durable goods (-40,100) surpassed gains in nondurable goods (+1,900). Construction decreased 13,700 jobs and mining and logging lost 1,800 jobs. Employment in the private service-providing sector decreased 298,800 with losses in leisure and hospitality (-131,000), trade, transportation, and utilities (-55,100), professional and business services (-53,800), educational and health services (-34,600), financial activities (-14,300), other services (-7,700), and information (-2,300). Government employment decreased 51,200 as losses in local (-32,300) and state (-25,900) government outpaced gains in federal government (+7,000).

EDITOR’S NOTE: All data cited are produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor. Data sources include the Current Population Survey (U.S. data), Current Employment Statistics Program (nonagricultural wage and salary employment data), and Local Area Unemployment Statistics Program (Ohio unemployment rates). More complete listings of the data appear in the monthly Ohio Labor Market Review. Unemployment rates for all Ohio counties, as well as cities with populations of 50,000 or more, are presented in the monthly ODJFS Civilian Labor Force Estimates publication. Updated statewide historical data may be obtained through the OhioLMI app, which is available for free on mobile devices through the App Store or Google Play. Ohioans can access tens of thousands of job openings, for positions ranging from file clerks to CEOs, at http://ohiomeansjobs.com.

News release dates
A calendar of 2020 release dates is available online at https://ohiolmi.com/Home/Events. County, city, and metropolitan area unemployment rates for September 2020 will be posted online at https://ohiolmi.com on Tuesday, October 20. October 2020 unemployment rates and nonagricultural wage and salary data for Ohio will be released by ODJFS on Friday, November 20, 2020. This information and the monthly statistical summaries it is based on are also available at https://jfs.ohio.gov/ocomm.

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