Ohio's unemployment rate nearly triples to 16.8% in April

[irisblue]

Source: Cleveland.com

snip--"CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio’s unemployment rate nearly tripled to 16.8% in April as the state lost 823,700 jobs with many employers shuttered because of coronavirus-related concerns, the state announced Friday.

The unemployment rate is higher than at any point in published state records by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics going back 1976, with the previous high of 14% in December 1982 and January 1983.


snip--"Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.1% in February and rose to a revised 5.8% in March as the state was beginning to shut down, though key parts of the data gathering for the March estimate were done before businesses and schools began to close.

The U.S. unemployment rate in April was 14.7%. The only previous time post-World War II when the national unemployment rate exceeded 10% was when it ranged from 10.1% to 10.8% from September 1982 through June 1983, according to BLS data. It has been estimated at close to 25% during the Depression."

Read more: https://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/2020/05/ohios-unemployment-nearly-triples-to-164-in-april.html

[sandensea]

1. They've been struggling since imports soared under Dubya

Though nothing quite like this.

[irisblue]

2. DeWines' presser today will be fire as the state slowly reopens

I hope his remaining backbone holds up over the next months

[Capt. America]

5. As an Ohioan since 1994 I can't believe this state keep electing this slug.

The Ohio Democratic Party can't elect a dog catcher statewide.

[ffr]

3. And OVER 40 million unemployed after yesterday's unemployment numbers

CBS Moneywatch

[progree]

4. The BLS admits that their 14.7% national unemployment rate is low by almost 5% due to errors:

Per Bureau of Labor Statistics May 8, 2020, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm :

In April the employment-to-population ratio is the lowest since records of that began in January 1948 (72 years ago)

Ditto the unemployment rate (except it is at the highest, not the lowest, since that seasonally adjusted series began in January 1948)

Also, the Bureau of Labor Statistics admits the official unemployment rate is almost 5 percentage points higher than the 14.7% reported due to classification errors of some of the household survey interviewers (making it close to 20%)

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

As was the case in March, special instructions sent to household survey
interviewers called for all employed persons absent from work due to coronavirus-related business
closures to be classified as unemployed on temporary layoff. However, it is apparent that not all
such workers were so classified.

If the workers who were recorded as employed but absent from work due to "other reasons" (over
and above the number absent for other reasons in a typical April) had been classified as unemployed
on temporary layoff, the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher
than reported (on a not seasonally adjusted basis). However, according to usual practice, the data
from the household survey are accepted as recorded. To maintain data integrity, no ad hoc actions
are taken to reclassify survey responses.

And the April numbers come from a sample week of April 12-18. Many more millions of jobs were lost since then, according to the weekly new unemployment claims reports that came out since.

Putting all of the above together, it is a virtual certainty that the unemployment rate was over 20% at the end of April.

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