Ohio posts first job-loss month of 2025

By J.D. Davidson
The Center Square

Ohio employers stopped hiring in May as the state’s unemployment rate remained well above the national average.

While the private sector shed 6,300 jobs in May, the state’s unemployment rate stayed flat at 4.9%. The labor force participation rate also remained the same at 62.7%, according to figures released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Ohio’s unemployment rate is the ninth worst in the country.

“As lawmakers finalize Ohio’s biennial budget, which can improve the state’s economic outlook, the Senate’s proposed flat tax will make the Buckeye State more attractive to employers and workers,” said Rea S. Hederman Jr., executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute.

Overall, the nation added 140,000 private-sector jobs. The national unemployment rate is 4.2%.

It’s been seven months since Ohio’s jobless rate declined month over month, falling in October to 4.3% from September’s 4.5%. Both of those numbers, however, were above the national average at the time.

That fall was the first time the rate dropped since a record-low rate of 3.3% in July 2023.

The Ohio job losses for May marked the first time this year the state didn’t add private jobs in a particular month, and Policy Matters Ohio researcher Molly Bryden thinks federal economic policies are beginning to be felt across the state.

“Economists at the Federal Reserve anticipate that the national unemployment rate will rise to 4.5% this year – an unsettling prediction for Ohio, with one of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S.,” Bryden said. "Sweeping cuts to federal funding programs, mass deportation efforts, and an uncertain global trade landscape all have severe implications for Ohio’s economy. While we can’t draw a comprehensive conclusion on the scope of these impacts from May’s losses alone, persistent unemployment levels have been sounding alarm bells for months."

The service industry had the highest state job losses (5,200) in May. Good producers lost more than 1,000 jobs and the construction sector fell by 400.

Information, financial activities, professional and business services, education and health services all posted gain.