The national trend may bode well for employment in Ohio, which added 1,500 total nonfarm jobs in March — the most recent month for which figures are available — while the statewide jobless rate held steady at 5.1 percent, unchanged for the third month in a row.
“It (labor market) is still soft, but it’s better than it was,” said Greg Lawson, an analyst at The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. The April numbers “could definitely be the start of something positive, but one month doesn’t necessarily make a trend. Let’s see if April was actually as good as it seems when the revisions come out next month.”
The monthly numbers are always preliminary estimates that will be revised as the government collects fresher data.
If the April numbers are confirmed, Lawson said, it could be a sign that the job market is regaining momentum after an unusually cold and snowy March stalled hiring at bars and restaurants and other weather-sensitive industries, while falling energy prices and a total shutdown of West Coast shipping ports hurt trade, transportation and mining industries.
The pullback in hiring slowed a robust national trend, in which U.S. employers added an average of 260,000 jobs a month in 2014 — the best year for job gains since 1999. Over the past three months, U.S. job growth has slowed to an average of 191,000 jobs per month, according to data from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Despite the net gain in Ohio, the state’s economy also showed signs of sluggishness earlier this year as private sector employment dipped by 500 jobs in March, with local government employment accounting for most of the hiring.
Still, the jobs data offers some encouraging signs, according to Lawson, who noted that both Ohio and the U.S. have seen strong growth in labor force participation since the beginning of the year.
Ohio’s labor force grew by 19,400 people in January; 5,800 in February; and 2,400 in March. Overall, the Ohio labor force has grown by 27,700 since the start of 2015 and is up 34,700 from last March.
“That’s a good sign,” said Lawson, who noted that when the economy is doing well, more people typically enter the labor market because there are more jobs available.
Nationally, the pickup in hiring in April was led by companies in white-collar businesses and health care. Professional and business services added 62,000 jobs and health-care providers hired 45,000 people, according to BLS data.
Construction companies also added jobs at a healthy pace, boosting payrolls by 45,000 as the weather warmed up and allowed work to proceed on new houses and commercial buildings.
The solid employment report boosted the major stock indexes. The Dow closed at 18,191.11, up 267.05 points, or 1.49 percent. The S&P 500 finished the day at 2,116.10, up 28.10, or 1.35 percent.
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