By Mike Sever
Record-Courier staff writer
The jobless rate for Portage County jumped 1.3 percentage points to 12 percent in January from December’s 10.7 percent rate, according to state numbers released Wednesday.
A year ago, in January 2009, the county’s rate was 9.6 percent. The data indicates 10,700 county residents were jobless out of a labor force of 89,500.
Portage ranked 60th out of the 88 counties, according to statistics released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The state’s rate of 10.8 percent was unchanged from December. Both the county and the state rates were higher than the U.S. rate of 9.7 percent, which was down from 10 percent in December.
Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment dropped by 12,800 over the month, from 4,998,400 in December to 4,985,600 in January.
Kent’s rate was 8.2 percent, up from 7.2 percent in December, with 1,300 people unemployed out of a labor force of 16,400.
Three of Portage’s six abutting counties had higher rates than Portage. Trumbull was highest at 14.3 percent followed by Mahoning at 13.7 and Stark at 13.5.
Summit’s rate was 11.7 while Cuyahoga’s was 10.2 and Geauga’s was 9.7 percent.
Mary Boston of Portage’s Workforce Connection said the actual number of unemployed is higher since the 12 percent “does not reflect those who have given up and exhausted benefits.” Boston said the uptick in January numbers could have been influenced by the severe weather.
While Boston would not hazard a guess to the real percentage, she said the center has “definitely seen an increase in customer traffic, those looking for work, needing resumes, upgrading job skills and looking for training opportunities.”
Training funds are available and the one-stop center holds sessions every Monday morning at Maplewood Career Center in Ravenna for people needing information on how to apply for funding for training. Registration is through the one-stop, 1081 W. Main St., Ravenna.
Among Ohio’s 88 counties, the January unemployment rates ranged from a low of 8.4 percent in Delaware County to a high of 19.8 percent in Ottawa County. Rates increased in all but one county.
Nine counties had jobless rates of less than 10 percent. In addition to Delaware, they were Holmes (8.6), Mercer (9.3), Franklin (9.4) Athens (9.5), Lawrence (9.6), Geauga (9.7), and Medina and Union (9.8).
Seven counties including Ottawa had rates at or above 18 percent. The others were Clinton (19.3), Highland (19.1), Noble (18.6), Morgan (18.5), Huron (18.3) and Pike (18.0).
Multi-media graphic: The Geography of a Recess: http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html