The U.S. Department of Labor announced Friday morning that 266,000 jobs were created in November 2019.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia issued the following statement on the November 2019 statistics:
"The November jobs report vastly outpaced predictions, with 266,000 jobs created. With 41,000 jobs in upward revisions for September and October, 6.6 million total jobs have been created since January 2017. The unemployment rate of 3.5% matched the September 2019 rate, a level that has not been achieved since 1969. November 2019 marks the 21st consecutive month in which the unemployment rate has been at or below 4%.”
Local economic experts said because state-by-state statistics have not yet been released, Ohioans should be cautiously optimistic.
Dr. Kathy Wilson, a professor at Kent State University, said Ohio trails far behind other states when it comes to employment rates.
Economists believe this is a regional trend. Within the past year, job growth numbers have been smaller in the upper Midwest than they have in the West and South.
Since 2018, jobs are up 2.5% in Arizona, 2.4 percent in Texas and 2.6% in Florida.
In the last year, new jobs in Ohio fall below the one percent line.
Additionally, there is a large employment percentage gap within the Buckeye State.
In the last year, the number of jobs increased by 2% in Cincinnati and 1.2% in Dayton.
The number of jobs in Cleveland since 2018 has grown by less than 1%.
The number of jobs in other areas of Northeast Ohio is shrinking.
Akron and Youngstown have seen employment percentage decreases in the last year.
Experts attribute the decline to a stall in manufacturing jobs.
To read the full statement from the U.S. Department of Labor, click here.
