Area counties report slight increases in unemployment

Area counties have seen an increase in their unemployment rates from November to December, according to the Civilian Labor Force Estimates from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.Seneca County's unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percentage point from 4.9% in November to 5% in December. Seneca reported a labor force of 26,000 with 1,300 unemployed in December. PHOTO COURTESY OF ODJFS Hancock and Wood counties too reported a tenth of a percentage point increase. Hancock reported a 4% unemployment rate in November to 4.1% unemployment rate in December. The labor force reported for Hancock in December was 41,000 with 1,700 unemployed. Wood reported a 4.1% unemployment rate in November and a 4.2% unemployment rate in December. Wood reported a 69,200 labor force with 2,900 unemployed in December.Wyandot County, however, reported the largest increase in the area. In November, Wyandot reported an unemployment rate of 3.6% to an unemployment rate of 3.9% in December. The labor force reported is 12,600 in December, with 500 unemployed.Crawford County's reported a rate decreased by a tenth of a percentage point from November to December. In November the reported rate was 5.5% down to 5.4% in December.The unemployment rate for Sandusky County remained the same from November to December at 5.2%. Sandusky reported a labor force of 28,400 with 1,500 unemployed in December.According to information provided by the ODJFS, Ohio's unemployment rate was 5.5% in December 2020, down from 5.7% in November. Ohio's nonagricultural wage and salary employment decreased 11,500 over the month, from a revised 5,253,200 in November to 5,241,700 in December 2020.The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in December was 315,000, down from 328,000 in November. The number of unemployed has increased by 78,000 in the past 12 months from 237,000. The December unemployment rate for Ohio increased from 4.1% in December 2019, provided by ODJFS. The U.S. unemployment rate for December was 6.7%, unchanged from November, and up from 3.6% in December 2019.