Ohio’s newly released jobs report for January showed lackluster growth and an uptick in unemployment, and economists warn the state could be in for a bumpy ride in 2025.
The January jobs report from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported the state’s unemployment rate at 4.6%, up from 4.5% in December. The national unemployment rate declined to 4.0, widening the gap between Ohio and the national average.
According to the jobs report, Ohio’s labor force participation rate was flat at 62.4%, while the national average rose to 62.6%.
Annual revisions to the unemployment reports show that Ohio ended 2024 with 4.87 million private-sector jobs, which is a downward adjustment of 34,000 jobs compared to the original December report, said Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute.
“This downward revision shows that 2024 was much weaker for job creation than initially thought, with job growth cut by more than half,” Hederman said. “Furthermore, January reported a loss of 2,800 private-sector jobs as the market softened to start the new year.”
Hederman notes that Ohio’s job market is trending in the wrong direction and taxpayer-funded subsidies to large companies are not producing the expected economic benefits.
That includes last week’s announcement that Intel Corp.’s massive semiconductor project in New Albany, Ohio, has been delayed into the next decade, despite receiving significant federal and state funding.
“Good economic policy is not massive subsidies to favored companies but broad-based tax relief to Ohio families and workers,” Hederman said.
According to The Buckeye Institute, Ohio’s biennium budget should focus on protecting taxpayers by controlling spending, adopting policies that encourage healthy adults to work, and implementing effective education policies to prepare workers for in-demand jobs.
Central Ohio economist, Bill LaFayette, founder of the consulting firm Regionomics, predicts slower economic and job growth in 2025.
“For the fourth consecutive year, it looks like central Ohio will have employment growth that's less than the national average,” LaFayette said in a Q&A with WOSU Media. “The chief problem’s been workforce. We have people entering the workforce at a fairly good rate, but they're not being hired, and they're not being hired most likely because they don't have the skills that employers need right now.”
Although construction and health care are industries that are doing well, Ohio’s rising unemployment rate indicates that people are not finding jobs to the same extent as last year.
“The same thing is going on here in central Ohio,” LaFayette said. “The number of people actively looking for jobs here in central Ohio was 30% higher in 2024 than it was in 2023.”
That mirrors national trends that the job hunt has been getting harder—and taking longer—compared with the surge of hiring in 2021-2023, AP News reported.
US-based employers announced 172,017 job cuts in February, an increase of 245%. This is the highest level since July 2020, during the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the highest February total since the Great Recession 16 years ago, Reuters reported.
