Ohio’s February unemployment rate of 4.2% down a tick from January, much more from

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 % in February from 4.3% in January as non-farm employment increased by 6,700 jobs, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Friday.

The national unemployment rate was 3.8% in February, compared to 4% in January.

There were 5,439,440 non-farm workers jobs in Ohio in February, compared with 5,432,700 the previous month.

The Ohio unemployment rate for February was down from 5.8% in February 2021. The national rate was down from 6.2% in February of last year.

From January to February of this year, goods-producing industries, such as construction and manufacturing, saw employment in Ohio drop by 3,500 to 917,000.

Employment among private service providers went up by 10,400 to 3,775,500, with gains in several areas; professional and business services; trade, transportation, and utilities; educational and health services; leisure and hospitality; information; and other services. Financial services saw a decline.

Non-farm employment in Ohio went up from February 2021 to February 2022 by 103,200 with goods-producing services and private service providers seeing overall gains.

Overall government employment in Ohio dropped from January to February of 2022 as the federal and state employment went down and local employment was flat. From February 2021 to February 2022, overall government employment declined with a gain at the local level of 1,900 unabe to offset a loss of 6,000 at the state level. The federal total was flat.