The Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services released data today showing that Ohio’s unemployment rate is now 7.2%. This Dispatch ran this Kasich campaign-approved headline: “Ohio unemployment drops for second straight month”.
While technically true, it fails to capture the important context, which is that Ohio continues to seriously lag the country in job growth.
While it’s true Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped two points, from 7.4% in November to 7.2% in December, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped three points, from 7.0% to 6.7%, meaning Ohio’s unemployment rate has continued to steadily get worse compared to the national average.
In December 2012, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 1.2% below the U.S. average. Last month, Ohio rose to .5% above the rest of the country, up from .4% above last month.
Nationally, people continue to find jobs. In Ohio, under Kasich, things continue to falter.
If you really want to know how Ohio’s economy is doing compared to the rest of the economy, this quick chart might help out…
Unemployment Rate of Ohio vs the National Average
Notice how Ohio’s unemployment rate continues to rise, while the national average continues to drop? That, my friend, is the truth behind John Kasich’s “Ohio Miracle”.
