JobWatch

Job Watch

April 2008

Seven-year Slack for Ohio Jobs

Ohio and Michigan are the only two states in the country that do not have as many jobs as they did when the last recession started seven years ago. Since then, Ohio has lost almost 175,000 jobs, or 3.1 percent of its total, according to seasonally adjusted payroll numbers for nonfarm wage and salary jobs released April 18 by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).

After a very modest recovery from the low point in 2003, Ohio’s job market has gone nowhere over the past several years. In one positive sign, the number of jobs in Ohio has been essentially flat over the past three months when the nation as a whole has been losing jobs. However, it will take longer to see if this is a meaningful difference or a statistical quirk; in March, the state experienced a major increase in new claims for unemployment benefits. Over the past year, Ohio has lost nearly 10,000 jobs.

The chart above and the following statistics, based on the latest seasonally adjusted ODJFS payroll numbers, highlight recent changes in the Ohio job market:

	3/2007	1/2001	Job Change since 1/2001	Percent Change since 1/2001	6/05 (Ohio tax reform approved)	Job Change since 6/05	Percent Change since 6/05
Total Jobs	5,417.9	5,606.1	-188.2	-3.4%	5,421.8	-3.9	-0.1%
Manufac-turing Jobs	758.8	998.6	-239.8	-24.0%	812.0	-53.2	-6.6%

Source: Employer Survey, Ohio Department of Job & Family Services and U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, number of jobs in thousands.

More than two and a half years after an overhaul of state taxes was signed into law with the intent of creating jobs, employment in Ohio has fallen by 3,900 jobs, or 0.1 percent. During the same period, the nation added almost 4.3 million jobs, for a growth rate of 3.2 percent. U.S. manufacturing employment has fallen since June 2005 by 578,000 jobs. However, Ohio has lost 53,200 manufacturing jobs in the same period, a relative loss considerably greater than that experienced by the nation as a whole.

The ODJFS reported from a separate survey of households that the Ohio unemployment rate in March rose to 5.7 percent, up from 5.3 percent in February.

JobWatch is an ongoing project of the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epinet.org) and Policy Matters Ohio, (http://www.policymattersohio.org), both nonprofit policy research institutes. Policy Matters is grateful to the Joyce, Gund, Cleveland and Sisters of Charity Foundations and to Greater Cleveland Community Shares for financial support.

Print Version - April 2008 Press Release in PDF format

The Joyce Foundation supports Policy Matters Ohio research on workers in Ohio. The Sisters of Charity Foundation provides additional funding for presentations and popular education on these issues. We are also grateful to the Gund and Cleveland Foundations for other support.

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