How unemployment is calculated
Ohio Job and Family Services estimates the unemployment rates each month from two surveys: a survey of businesses with U.S. Department of Labor and a survey of households with the U.S. Census Bureau, Ben Johnson, Ohio Job and Family Services spokesman, said. The business survey is a random sample of small, medium and large businesses that are asked how many people work for them every month, Johnson said. The household survey asks people if they’re working and if they’ve actively looked for a job in the past four weeks, he said. The household survey is combined with data from the state about people receiving unemployment compensation to come up with the state level unemployment rates. The same information is used for the municipal, county and metropolitan area unemployment rates, as well as data on mass layoffs, he added. To be counted as unemployed, people must actively be looking for work.
Hamilton’s unemployment rate dropped last month to 9.8 percent, the lowest rate for city residents out of work and looking for a job in the past two years, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said Tuesday.
That’s a drop in Hamilton from 10.2 percent unemployment in September and for October 2010.
The unemployment rate in Butler County last month was 8.7 percent, or 16,400 people, the fourth straight month of fractional declines since July.
Ohio and U.S. unemployment rates dropped to 9 percent last month from 9.1 percent in September.
However, the 80,000 jobs created last month in the U.S. is “treading water,” said LaVaughn Henry, vice president and senior regional officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Cincinnati Branch. Henry was one of the speakers Tuesday in Mason at the annual Warren County Economic Outlook Breakfast.
He said unemployment came down last month because people left the labor market and stopped looking for jobs.
“What we’re seeing in the economy now is how do you take those workers that were displaced because of the productivity gains and employ them?” Henry said.
Unemployment decreased from September to October in other Butler County cities as well, to 9.7 percent in Middletown and 8.6 percent in Fairfield, according to the state.
Neighboring counties saw flat changes month-to-month unemployment of 8.7 percent in Hamilton County and 7.6 percent in Warren County, according to Job and Family Services.
Staff Writer William Hershey contributed to this report.
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