The trend was the same for most counties in the local area, including the area’s most populous county, Montgomery, which saw its jobless rate climb last month to 4.9 percent from 4.6 percent in May, but was down from 5.1 percent last June.
Miami and Greene counties also saw their jobless rates rise. Unemployment in Miami County pushed up to 4.3 percent last month from 3.9 percent in May. Meanwhile, Greene County posted a June unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, up from 4.1 percent in the previous month. The June rates for both Miami and Greene counties were down from year-ago rates of 4.4 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.
Across the state, unemployment rates increased in 78 counties, declined in nine, and remained unchanged in one. Unemployment rates ranged from a low of 3.2 percent in Mercer County to a high of 10.2 percent in Monroe County.
Unemployment rates typically rise in June as working-age students leave school and join the workforce looking for jobs. They’re counted as unemployed until they find work.
But city and county rates are not adjusted for such seasonal hiring trends, and, therefore, are not comparable to the state rate in Ohio, which dipped to 5 percent in June from 5.1 percent in May, according to figures released earlier this month by the state jobs department.
Data from a separate survey of households also showed that, overall, fewer Ohioans were working or looking for work in June.
The labor force shrunk by 16,000. And the labor force participation rate — or the percentage of the workforce either holding a job or actively seeking one — fell to 63.4 percent from 63.6 percent in May, the first decline in eight months.
For the nation as a whole, the U.S. jobless rate inched up to 4.9 percent in June from 4.7 percent in May, on an adjusted basis.
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