Data on employment

I don’t know why, but Mercer County Ohio seems to have the lowest unemployment rate in the state, 2.4. It’s on the Indiana border, which seems to have a lower unemployment rate than Ohio, and did all during the very slow recovery. The highest unemployment rate in November 2018 was Monroe County, at 7.1. It is located on the eastern border of  of Ohio, across the Ohio River from West Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was only 14,642, making it the second-least populous county in Ohio. If you want to be alone, this is your county--the county averages thirty-three people per square mile. Major employers are the county government, the schools and nursing homes.

I found this by looking at “Local Area Unemployment Statistics Map” of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and clicking on Ohio, then placing the cursor over the various counties which were shaded according to unemployment rates, with the lightest color being the least unemployment.  https://data.bls.gov/map/MapToolServlet    From there you can go to https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045218 and type in the county name in the search window for more facts about the county.

Since I’ve never applied for unemployment I do wonder why some counties that are high are right next to counties that are low, but generally those counties in Appalachia are higher than the counties next to Indiana. Poor transportation?  Low education rates?  Monroe’s graduation rate is 87.9 and Mercer’s 92.7—both above the national average.  Health insurance?  Monroe County has 7.8% who don’t have insurance, and Mercer 5.6%.  Both counties are over 97% white.  But the poverty rate in Monroe is 15.2 and Mercer is 6.9, and disability is much higher in Monroe, 13.7 compared to 6 for Mercer.

See?  Even with the employees furloughed, there’s a lot of information out there from the U.S. Census.