Ohio Unemployment Down, But State Lost 12,000 Jobs In November

The state says Ohio's unemployment rate dropped in November to 7.4 percent, down slightly from the October rate of 7.5 percent. The rate was still well above the seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 6.8 percent in November of last year. A separate survey of employers found the overall work force shrank by about 12,000 people in November. The Department of Job and Family Services released the initial unemployment figure Friday, with fuller jobs data for November to follow. The state rate has varied only slightly throughout this year and had been hovering below the U.S. rate. But the Ohio rate for October was higher than the U.S. rate of 7.3 percent for that month. Ohio's seasonally adjusted jobless rate in October was 7.5 percent, the highest for Ohio since March 2012. The number of unemployed workers in the state that month was 427,000, up 2,000 from September.