Kasich Applauds Plunge in Ohio's Unemployment Rate

Release:

COLUMBUS – Gov. John R. Kasich issued the following statement in response to the announcement today that Ohio’s unemployment rate in November dropped from 9.0 percent to 8.5 percent, the largest one-month drop in almost three decades and the lowest rate in three years:

“It is so encouraging to see Ohioans getting back to work. We’ve struggled for far too long but things are beginning to get back on track. Ohio employers have added more than 45,000 jobs so far this year, but too many Ohioans are still out of work and we have a lot of progress yet to make. It’s encouraging however, to see Ohio regaining the capacity for an improvement like this, and it should drive us to redouble our efforts to create the jobs-friendly environment we need.”



FACTS

· Ohio's unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in November 2011; down from 9.0 percent in October and 9.6 in November, 2010. The U.S. unemployment rate for November was 8.6 percent, down from 9.0 percent in October.

o This is Ohio’s lowest unemployment rate for three years. In December, 2008, Ohio’s rate was 8.1 percent.

o This is the largest drop in Ohio’s unemployment rate in almost 30 years. The last time the rate decreased by .5 or more was June to July, 1983, when the rate decreased from 13.1 to 11.4.

· Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment increased 6,000 over the month, from 5,107,500 in October, to 5,113,500 in November.

· The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in November was 496,000, down from 526,000 in October.

· The number of unemployed has decreased by 69,000 in the past 12 months from 565,000.