Gov. John Kasich is sounding off about a report over the weekend saying that his job creation record for the last two years is only slightly better than that of his Democratic predecessor, Ted Strickland.
The Columbus Dispatch reported the state gained just 12,500 jobs last year, a statistic provided by the Kasich administration's own Department of Job and Family Services.
“Their numbers are wrong. So – fake news,” said Kasich, who said the state is nearing a gain of a half a million jobs since he took office. “That’s a trend you want to keep, and a diversification of the type of jobs, our wages are going up faster than the national average, it’s just – whatever.”
After the Kasich administration's criticism, the department - which usually uses only private sector job stats - revised its claims. Now it says the state created more than 32,000 total jobs last year.
Those figures were actually revised down on Friday to just over 30,000, which is the worst one-year job growth since the Great Recession.
Republican Auditor Dave Yost is now calling for a one-time five-year performance audit of job creating entity JobsOhio.
