http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/state_regional/article/ohio_joblessness_soars_to_20-year_high/12146/
Associated Press
Published: January 24, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Steep losses in the manufacturing sector pushed Ohio’s unemployment rate to 7.8 percent last month, the highest jobless rate in more than 20 years, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said.
The state released figures on Friday that showed December’s unemployment rate was up from 5.8 percent a year ago and 7.3 percent in November. It also tops the national rate of 7.2 percent.
Ohio hasn’t seen such a high jobless rate since it hit 7.9 percent in 1986, department spokesman Brian Harter said. Unemployment hit an all-time high of 13.8 percent in December 1982 and January 1983, he said.
The government began tracking unemployment figures in 1970.
The number of unemployed Ohio workers in December was 465,000, up from 435,000 in November. That number has increased by 118,000 in the past 12 months.
Job and Family Services reported that job losses worsened in the goods-producing and service-providing industries.
“We lost almost 16,000 jobs in manufacturing alone back in December,“ Harter said. “That continues to be the largest area of concern, not only for Ohio, but for this region of the Midwest.“
Illinois logged the same unemployment rate as Ohio, and Michigan - the only state more connected than Ohio to the struggling auto industry - had a rate of 9.6 percent, he said.
Nearly 100,000 people work in assembly plants and parts plants around Ohio, which has lost 50,000 auto manufacturing jobs since 2001.
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