The unemployment rate in Highland County rose in January to 6.0 percent, a climb of 1.7 percent from the previous month, according to figures released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).
The ODJFS said the labor force in Highland County has 17,300 workers, with 16,300 members of the force employed and 1,000 unemployed. The numbers are not seasonally adjusted.
Of the 88 counties in Ohio, Highland County is ranked 20th in terms of the highest unemployment rate in the state, tied with one other county.
Seasonal adjustment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a “statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment change from month to month.”
It considers the changes in labor market activity because of seasonal events like weather, harvests and major holidays. Because the seasonal events are mostly the same every year, the change in the trends can be eliminated by seasonally adjusting the statistics from month to month. The adjustments allow people to see the underlying trends and other nonseasonal movements, ODJFS said.
The county unemployment rates in Ohio ranged from a low of 2.9 percent in Holmes County to a high of 8.7 percent in Monroe County.
The state had nine counties at or below 3.5 percent unemployment in January: Holmes County at 2.9 percent, Mercer County at 3 percent, Delaware County at 3.1 percent, Auglaize and Union counties at 3.3 percent, Hancock County at 3.4 percent, and Putnam, Wayne and Wyandot counties at 3.5 percent.
The state had nine counties at or above 7.0 percent unemployment in January: Monroe County at 8.7 percent, Morgan County at 8.1 percent, Ottawa County at 7.7 percent, Meigs and Noble counties at 7.5 percent, Huron County at 7.4 percent; Adams and Erie counties at 7.1 percent; and Lorain County at 7.0 percent.
According to ODJFS, unemployment increased in all 88 Ohio counties in January.
Of the six counties contiguous to Highland County, Fayette County had 4.5 percent unemployment in January, Ross County had 4.9 percent, Clinton County had 5.0 percent, Brown County had 5.6 percent, Pike County had 6.7 percent and Adams County had 7.1 percent.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
