Ohio’s unemployment rate in May was fifth-highest in the U.S. at 4.9%, despite state programs aimed at job creation.<\/p>\n
COLUMBUS, Ohio \u2014 Ohio in May had the fifth-highest unemployment in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The people behind state programs <\/a>that are supposed to create jobs aren\u2019t taking credit for Ohio\u2019s relatively high jobless rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on June 24 released May unemployment rates<\/a>. Ohio tied with Rhode Island for the fifth-highest rate at 4.9%. Exceeding them were Kentucky, at 5%, California, at 5.3%, Michigan, at 5.4% and Nevada, at 5.5%.<\/p>\n Ohio had the nation\u2019s sixth-highest unemployment rate<\/a> in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those jobless rates come despite a long history of state lawmakers and political leaders foregoing huge amounts of tax revenue on the argument that giving wealthy people and businesses tax breaks and other perks will prompt them to make new investments and create jobs.<\/p>\n For example, under the guidance of then-Gov. John Kasich, Ohio in 2013 created the\u00a0LLC tax break<\/a>, allowing people to incorporate as \u201cpass through\u201d entities and avoid a big portion of state income tax.<\/p>\n The tax break costs the state about $1 billion a year, and there\u2019s little evidence that it\u2019s done much in the way of create jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ohio\u2019s non-farm employment in December 2023 was 112.3% of its 2010 level, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. That lags the national average of 121.2% by\u00a0nearly nine percentage points<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the group of Ohioans already doing the best have done well under the LLC tax break. Policy Matters of Ohio in 2022 reported\u00a0that the top 7% claiming qualifying business income in 2020 received 39%<\/a> of the overall value of the tax break \u2014 about $390 million.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that the LLC loophole hasn\u2019t lived up to its promises, the Ohio legislature hasn\u2019t repealed it.<\/p>\n Around the same time that program was created, the Kasich administration also led the way in creating\u00a0JobsOhio<\/a>. Even though it was created by the legislature and was given a deal to lease the state\u2019s liquor franchise, the Ohio Supreme Court has allowed it to operate as a \u201cprivate\u201d corporation, exempting it from Ohio\u2019s open-records laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n The agency has spent more than $1 billion in what used to be state money, providing much of it to wealthy corporations in the form of incentives to locate or expand in Ohio, or at least not to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n Research has shown that such incentives rarely play a deciding role<\/a> in businesses\u2019 strategic decisions. And JobsOhio has struggled to produce data that show<\/a> it has improved the state\u2019s employment picture.<\/p>\n Asked if Ohio\u2019s relatively high unemployment rate reflected poorly on the work of his agency, spokesman Matt Englehart said it would be even worse \u2014 if not for JobsOhio.<\/p>\n \u201cMuch of the current unemployment is the result of federal layoffs and their ripple effects,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cBecause of Ohio\u2019s large number of federal workers, those federal layoffs could have created a severe shock to Ohio\u2019s economy. Still, unemployment is only slightly elevated because of JobsOhio\u2019s focus on industrial diversity. We focus on growing 10 sectors of Ohio\u2019s economy, accounting for 22% of jobs, 29% of payroll, and 36% of Ohio\u2019s gross state product.\u201d<\/p>\n Ohio\u2019s per-capita federal workforce\u00a0isn\u2019t all that big<\/a>, according to a March report by Columbus-based Scioto Analysis. With 10 federal employees per 1,000 workers, Ohio tied with seven other states for the 26th-highest rate of federal employees.<\/p>\n Englehart didn\u2019t furnish any data showing that JobsOhio has diminished the state\u2019s unemployment rate.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile JobsOhio does not directly impact month-to-month swings in preliminary data, we are investing aggressively for the long term to build a highly diverse, resilient economy across strategic industries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Despite questions about its efficacy, Gov. Mike DeWine and legislative leaders in February extended JobsOhio\u2019s control of the liquor franchise for an additional 15 years \u2014 until 2053. And while JobsOhio agreed to pay the state $1.41 billion for its initial lease,\u00a0it wasn\u2019t required to pay anything<\/a> for its lucrative extension.<\/p>\n DeWine this week signed another windfall to the wealthiest Ohioans that was pitched as a way to help the economy. The now flat, 2.75% state income tax was touted as an \u201ceconomic driver<\/a>\u201d by Ohio Senate Republicans.<\/p>\n But Policy Matters Ohio said it will cost $1.1 billion a year and the wealthiest 20% of households \u2014 those making more than $138,000 a year \u2014 will\u00a0reap 96% of the benefit<\/a>.<\/p>\n And Ohio is giving up tax revenue as President Donald Trump appears poised to\u00a0slash Medicaid and food assistance to the poor<\/a>. Ohio would have to fill those gaps or see hundreds of thousands lose health care and go hungry, advocates say. In addition, the cuts could\u00a0plunge the economy into recession<\/a>, depressing state tax collections as it voluntarily foregoes part of them.<\/p>\n DeWine\u2019s office was asked, in light of Ohio\u2019s relatively high unemployment, if it was wise to keep creating windfalls for the richest people in the state. It didn\u2019t respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ohio’s unemployment rate in May was fifth-highest in the U.S. at 4.9%, despite state programs aimed at job…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[51,897,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-242584","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114806123558406778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}