Local labor market problems growing more acute

Late last week the Ohio Depart­ment of Job and Fam­ily Ser­vices released Decem­ber 2011 employment/unemployment fig­ures for the greater Colum­bus area, with the unem­ploy­ment rate — not adjusted for sea­sonal vari­a­tions — drop­ping to 6.4 per­cent. This rate was down from November’s 6.6 per­cent, and was far below the unem­ploy­ment rate of 7.7 per­cent in Decem­ber 2010. And the reac­tion at the Depart­ment of Job and Fam­ily Ser­vices? Accord­ing to their spokesman, Ben­jamin John­son, “It shows def­i­nite improve­ment … (i)t shows a strength­en­ing econ­omy and an improv­ing job market.”