Unemployment in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky slid to 7.1 percent in April – the biggest one-month drop in more than five years and the lowest since December 2008.
The rate fell from 7.8 percent in March and compares to 8.4 percent in April 2011. Nationally, the unemployment rate is 7.7 percent. All rates are seasonally unadjusted.
With 1.02 million workers, Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky now employs the most workers since August 2009, according to new data out Tuesday from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
At the same time, the 77,900 people out of work represents the fewest jobless since November 2008.
Manufacturing jobs are powering the comeback. The sector has added 8,300 jobs in the past year – an increase of 8 percent, compared to a 1.6 percent annual growth for all jobs.
“How the national economy goes, Cincinnati goes,” said LaVaughn Henry, vice president and senior regional officer for the Cincinnati Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. “What you’re seeing at the national level is manufacturing is improving at a more sustained rate, so to the extent that Cincinnati does still have a fairly substantial manufacturing economy, that’s helpful.”
He said improvement in the local unemployment rate is reason for “cautious optimism.” But he noted that the growth in manufacturing jobs is limited to high-skilled workers. Tasks that took four workers to complete in 2000 now take just three today. Skilled workers and technology account for the difference.
“If you are a specialist in manufacturing – like a software engineer – right now getting a job is pretty easy,” he said. “But if you’re talking about entry level manufacturing, it’s not good.”
Daniel Cunninghan, president and chief executive officer of local manufacturer The Long-Stanton Group, goes one step further.
“The low-tech jobs are gone. Any manufacturing jobs are going to be relatively high-tech,” he said.
But the resulting increased efficiency, Cunningham said, bodes well for manufacturers going forward. For example, he predicts that by 2015, the United States will be competitive with China when it comes to the cost of producing precision form sheet metal parts, which are used to make goods such as washing machines.
“We’re suggesting our customers start considering whether it makes sense to reshore some of their products here,” he said. “The corporations that take advantage of reshoring now – products that I would be delighted to make in West Chester – will be in the catbird’s seat by 2015.”
Another piece of jobs news also was encouraging Tuesday: Job growth actually outpaced the growth of the overall workforce. The region added 9,200 jobs in April, while the local workforce increased by just 6,000 workers over March.
Overall, the 15-county metro region has restored 44 percent of the 97,100 jobs lost since local employment peaked at 1.07 million jobs in July 2008.
Source Article from http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120522/BIZ/305220100/Local-unemployment-rate-falls-7-1-percent
