Jobless Rates In Our Area Show Dramatic Increases

Unem­ploy­ment in the six-county region is a prob­lem, and it appears to be get­ting worse. The job­less rate here increased from Decem­ber to Jan­u­ary, accord­ing to fig­ures from the Ohio Depart­ment of Job and Fam­ily Ser­vices. In Jan­u­ary, the job­less rate in Williams County went up to 5.6 per­cent. It stood at 4.1 per­cent in Decem­ber. Other area coun­ties showed sim­i­lar gains in unem­ploye­ment num­bers, includ­ing Henry County, which had the largest increase, going up to 7.5 per­cent from 4.9 per­cent one month prior. Defi­ance County went from 4.2 per­cent in Decem­ber, to 5.7 per­cent in Jan­u­ary. Across the region, rates not sea­son­ally adjusted rose between 1.5 and 2.6 per­cent between Decem­ber and Jan­u­ary. In fact, the whole state of Ohio has increased. The high­est unem­ploy­ment rate in the state was shown to be in Adams County, at 11.2 per­cent. Delaware and Mer­cer coun­ties had the low­est rate at 4.2 percent.