Staff report
gogle@wbcowqel.com
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services released its county-by-county employment data Wednesday. What it showed is that Crawford County’s unemployment picture looks like a silhouette of a roller coaster ride against the summer sky.
Crawford County showed an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent in July and then dropped to 7.8 percent in August. The jobless rate then went up again in September to 8.6 percent but sloped downward to 8.3 percent in October, the same as it was a year ago.
But the devil is often in the details and the real disappointing news can be found in the number of people working in October compared to August of this year. In those two months the raw data showed a net loss of 800 jobs in the county down to 18,100. That same decrease of 800 was also reflected in the total labor force which is down to 19,700.
Those receiving unemployment benefits stayed steady at 1,600.