DAYTON — Ohio reported a fractional improvement in its September unemployment totals, but an executive with the staffing company Spherion Corp. said that was likely due to young people returning to school.

"I don't really see that there's been any kind of decrease in unemployment," said Veronica Adkins, manager of Spherion's Dayton-Kettering branch office at 4105 Marshall Road, Kettering. "I can only think that it's going to get worse, because of General Motors."

She referred to GM's plan to close its Moraine sport utility vehicle assembly plant on Dec. 23, which will wipe out 1,100 jobs there and eliminate a market for larger and small suppliers that serve the automaker.

Ohio's unemployment rate was 7.2 percent in September, down slightly from 7.4 percent in August, the state Department of Job and Family Services reported on Friday, Oct. 17.

Employment by service-providing industries fell to 4,415,900 statewide, down 3,100 from August, the department reported. The largest decline, a total of 3,000 jobs, occurred in the trade, transportation and utilities sectors. Nonfarm wage and salary employment declined by 3,400 to 5,402,300 in September from 5,405,700 in August.

Adkins said that during her 10 years at Spherion's Kettering office, she recalls times when the job market was tight and there were shortages of available workers to place.

"It's not like that now," she said Friday. "We can be a lot more picky about the people we select. ... There are a lot of people available right now."

The Kettering office serves customers in food and electronics industries, farming, industry and communications. Job applicants through the office are about evenly split between labor and administrative backgrounds, Adkins said.

Spherion said its latest monthly survey of Ohio employees statewide showed a drop of 6.5 percentage points in September to 38.8. The survey, done by Harris Interactive for Spherion, concluded that fewer workers are confident in their personal employment situation and that more workers are likely to look for a new job during the next year.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.