COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate in May was the lowest since the current system for reporting began 47 years ago, marking a complete recovery from the massive job losses during the early days of the pandemic, according to data released by the state Friday.
Last month’s 3.6% jobless rate was down from 3.7% in April 2023 and the lowest unemployment rate since 1976, when the series for reporting unemployment started, according to the monthly report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Ohio employers added 6,600 people to payrolls over the month to a preliminary total of 5.6 million, meaning the state has fully recovered the jobs lost to COVID-19, said Policy Matters Ohio senior researcher Michael Shields.
“This jobs recovery has taken 37 months since it began in May 2020, less than half the time it took Ohio to recover jobs lost to the Great Recession, when we were bogged down by austerity policies that prioritized tax cuts and restrictions to government spending over the recovery of most Ohioans,” Shields said.
The nonprofit policy research institute has called for more emphasis on tax cuts for moderate- and low-income Ohioans and higher wages.
The 5,614,600 working Ohioans last month was 800 more than in February 2020, the month before the COVID-19 shutdown, Shields said.
Ohio lost 881,600 jobs between February and April 2020, Shields said.
The U.S. unemployment rate for May was 3.7%, up from 3.4% in April and up from 3.6% in May 2022.