Why Ohio’s unemployment rate continues to rise even as more jobs are being added

Despite steady job growth across the United States, unemployment rates are still rising in many states, including Ohio. While companies across the state continue to add more positions, many Ohioans are finding themselves unable to connect with opportunities that fit their skill set, and Portage County is seeing that same trend.

 

For job seekers like Anthony Porach, a 21-year-old Integrated Health Studies student at Kent State University, this disconnect can be frustrating.

 

“It’s November and I’ve applied to dozens of jobs since the beginning of the semester,” Porach said. “Either I never hear back from them, or the job barely pays enough to cover a month of rent.”

 

He said he has continuously found job postings that are labeled as entry-level, but end up requiring unrealistic experience.

 

“Every job offer I’ve seen wants three to five years of experience, even for an entry-level job,” Porach said. “I’m literally still in school, how am I supposed to have all that experience?”

 

Portage County’s workforce data shows this same phenomenon. According to the 2024 Portage County Jobs & Family Services Annual Report, the county’s unemployment rate peaked at 5.2% in June of last year, even though the county saw a large number of clients engaging with their workforce services.

 

Economists and policy experts say this clear contradiction isn’t as simple as it looks on the surface. The phenomenon exposes a deeper set of structural issues that have been building in Ohio’s economy for years.

 

Bill LaFayette, owner of Regionomics, a Columbus-based economic and workforce strategy firm, said Ohio’s unemployment pattern is based on its own long-term economic challenges.

 

“We have underperformed the national economy for decades and decades,” he said. “That’s pretty much true of the Midwest and Northeast in general.”

 

LaFayette explained that unemployment patterns in Ohio vary based on the regions you look at, from the strong growth of areas like Columbus and Cincinnati, to the slower recoveries seen in former manufacturing centers like Cleveland, Akron and Toledo. He said the state’s overall numbers rarely represent what’s happening in any one region.

 

State trends confirm those regional differences. According to the Ohio Labor Market Review for August 2025, over 76,000 nonfarm jobs were added throughout the past year; however, the unemployment rate still jumped to 4.3%. The number of unemployed people in Ohio rose by more than 37,000, meaning that many people are reentering the workforce but are unable to find jobs.

 

Heather Smith, a work and wages researcher at Policy Matters Ohio, said Ohio’s labor market cannot be separated from the policy decisions that have shaped it.

 

“The state of Ohio’s labor market is the result of decades of poor policy choices,” she said. “We have seen billions of dollars stripped from our state revenue that could have gone towards workforce development programs, publicly funded childcare, or our unemployment system.”

 

Smith said Ohio’s workforce participation rate, the percentage of the population over the age of 16 that is actively employed or looking for work, has steadily declined over the past 25 years. An aging population has led many long-time workers into retirement, while younger workers are leaving Ohio in search of better opportunities.

 

“We’ve got less people in the state working than we had 25 years ago,” she said. “You’ve got an aging workforce in Ohio, and we don’t have the same amount of younger folks aging into prime working age.”

 

Smith said the result is a labor market that’s growing more slowly and offering fewer jobs of actual quality. Even though employers are advertising more job openings, many of the positions are part-time or low-wage opportunities that fail to provide proper stability and benefits.

 

“Job growth does not mean job quality,” she said. “We’re seeing businesses schedule people just under full-time so they don’t have to pay for benefits, and wages are not picking up with the amount of value workers are creating.”

 

The numbers across the state and country are also showing significant geographic inconsistencies.

 

“Appalachia is really getting screwed over,” Smith said. “Last year, 25 counties in the state had unemployment rates above 5%, and 21 of those counties were Appalachian.”

 

She said a lot of Ohio’s recent job growth has been concentrated in urban areas like Columbus and Cincinnati, leaving rural counties without the same opportunities. Major plant closures, like the shutdown of a paper mill in Scioto County and the long-term decline of manufacturing in Lordstown, have left lasting effects on those counties’ economies.

 

Smith also said certain demographic groups have been hit harder than others as well.

 

“Black workers have nearly twice the unemployment rate of the state as a whole,” she said. “Typically, Black workers are fired first and hired last whenever there is a recession. The fact that their unemployment rate went up to 9.2% in 2024 is not a good sign.”

 

Experts say addressing the uneven labor market to unemployment ratio will take more than just job creation. It will take real investment into workforce development, training, and worker protections.

 

LaFayette said the most immediate thing that should be done is to properly align skills with the needs of employers. 

“The big thing that could probably make a difference is training and education,” he said. “And there are federal funds that allow more people to get that training. More of that is always better.”

 

Smith also said workforce programs, like pre-apprenticeships and trade programs, could help younger Ohioans find stable, well-paying jobs without having to go to college.

 

“Pre-apprenticeship programs can be a really critical tool,” she said. “They allow young folks to get paid while they’re being trained and then support themselves with good, union careers.”

 

She also pointed out that childcare access is a huge barrier preventing parents from being able to join and hold a position in the workforce.

 

“We lost 32% of our childcare workers between 2017 and 2023,” Smith said. “If we provided free childcare to those childcare workers, that would add thousands of childcare slots, help parents go back to work, and keep people in the childcare sector.”

 

In Portage County, local officials and job seekers are seeing similar challenges, even as employers are posting more and more job openings.

 

The county’s OhioMeansJobs center reported 401 individuals selected for reemployment services and 64 individuals in adult workforce programs each month, which shows a rising need for job search assistance and barriers to stable employment.

 

There is a difference in job availability and job accessibility, and this is mirrored in Portage County. Porach said he sees this constantly.

 

“Just because there are job openings doesn’t mean all of the jobs are doable,” he said. “People are unemployed because the open jobs are offering minimum salaries while requiring a degree and multiple years of experience.”

 

He said this uncertainty within the labor market has made him rethink what might happen after he graduates in the spring.

 

“Honestly, if it’s this hard getting hired for a part-time job while I’m still in school, I can’t imagine what finding a real job will be like after I graduate,” Porach said. “I feel like the past few years have been difficult and it’s only going to get worse.”

 

Smith said people’s frustration with this phenomenon is part of a larger national trend; people want to work, but the open positions aren’t always accessible.

 

“Just because there are jobs doesn’t mean that they’re accessible jobs,” she said. “You might see an entry-level position that wants five years of experience and a master’s degree, and it pays $30,000 a year. That’s not realistic.”

 

Both Smith and LaFayette said Ohio’s long-term economic success will stem from whether employers and policymakers can make the labor market more appealing for workers.

 

Smith said raising the minimum wage, strengthening unions and investing in public services would help make employment more sustainable for those in Ohio.

 

LaFayette similarly said that the state’s recovery will rely on expanding access to education and rebuilding confidence among those in the workforce.

 

He said Ohio’s rising unemployment rate doesn’t necessarily represent a weakening economy; it’s a shifting one, where people are trying to find the resources they need and positions that fit into their lives correctly.

 

“You can’t just say that because the unemployment rate rose, things are getting worse,” LaFayette said. “It’s much more complicated than that.”