BUSINESS

Ohio's big cities bearing brunt of unemployment related to COVID-19 outbreak

Mark Williams
The Columbus Dispatch
The unemployment rate for the Columbus metro area was 8.3% in August, but the rate for the city of Columbus was 9.8%. For Franklin County, the rate was 9.1%.

Ohio's biggest cities continue to take the biggest hits from the coronavirus when it comes to employment.

The unemployment rates for the cities in August were much higher than the surrounding metro area in which they are located, according to unemployment data released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. That's been the pattern since the economy began to reopen.

Take Columbus, for example.

The rate for the Columbus metro area was 8.3% in August, but the rate for the city of Columbus was 9.8%. For Franklin County, the rate was 9.1%.

In normal times, the rates for Columbus and Franklin County are at or close to the rate for the metro area since they are the big employers in the region.

For the Cleveland metro area, the jobless rate was 10.4%, but in Cleveland itself the rate was 15.6% while in nearby Akron, the rate was 11.9%.

Cincinnati had an unemployment rate of 11.2% last month. Dayton's rate was 12.9% and the rate in Toledo was 12.3%.

Youngstown's rate was 15% last month.

Even smaller cities are reporting higher rates. Lorain's jobless rate last month was 13.9%, and the rate for Mansfield was 11.2%.

By contrast, the highest unemployment rate among Ohio's 88 counties was 11.9% in Monroe County in eastern Ohio, which has a population of 13,654.

Economist Bill LaFayette believes weak hotel and restaurant employment is behind those high rates in the cities. Both have been slow to recover from the coronavirus with consumers still reluctant to travel or go out to dinner.

"There's a higher concentration of those workers living within the cities than you have in the outlying areas,’’ said LaFayette, owner of the economic consulting firm Regionomics.

Columbus did add 10,900 jobs in August with big gains in private education and health care (7,100 jobs) and government (3,700 jobs).

Since the economy began to reopen, the region has added back about 70,000 jobs, but still has 90,200 fewer jobs than it did a year ago.

The Cincinnati area had the lowest unemployment rate among the metro areas at 8% last month, but that was up from 7.6% in July.

The Columbus rate held steady while the other metro areas in Ohio posted lower rates in August. 

Six counties in Ohio had jobless rates at or below 6% in August, including Union in central Ohio. Delaware's rate was 6.1%, and Madison's rate was 6.4%.

Morrow County's unemployment rate was 7.1%, followed by 7.2% in Hocking, 7.3% in Pickaway and 7.4% in Fairfield.

Perry County had the highest rate in the region at 8.6%.

Holmes County in northeast Ohio had the lowest rate among the counties at 4.1%.

Overall, 66 of Ohio's 88 counties posted lower unemployment rates in August, while rates increased in 13 counties and remained the same in nine counties.

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams