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Local unemployment rate drops; fewer looking for work

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By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer Updated 5:17 PM Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Unemployment numbers dropped again across the board locally, however a state official said the decrease may be due to more people giving up on their search for work.

In Butler County, jobless rates fell from 10.1 percent in August to 9.1 percent in September, according to a report released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The report, which is compiled via a monthly survey by the U.S. Census Bureau and is not based on unemployment payments, showed that while the number of people who said they were unemployed and actively seeking work dropped by 2,200 in the county, so did the number of people who were working. An additional 2,500 dropped out of the employment ranks last month, according to the report.

In Warren County, the unemployment rate for September also fell from 9.3 percent to 8.5 percent.

Rates also took a dive in Hamilton, Fairfield and Middletown, the only Butler County cities tracked by the state. Middletown’s rate fell from 11.5 percent to 10.3 percent. In Hamilton, jobless numbers fell from 11.6 percent to 10.8 percent. Fairfield’s unemployment figures dipped from 9.4 to 8.7 percent, according to the ODJFS report.

Brian Harter, spokesman for the ODJFS, said the dip correlates with more people leaving the employment market.

“We attribute this to more people going back to school or simply being frustrated they cannot find employment,” he said.

As the number of jobless continues to remain high, Jerome Kearns, assistant director of the Butler County Department of Job and Family Services, said so is the number of residents seeking other government assistance programs like food stamps. As of September, about 41,000 people, or 7,000 more, have sought food stamps since January, many for the first time.

“Largely what we are seeing is people finding themselves in a place of unemployment or under-employment where they have never had to seek these services to help their families,” he said. “They’re finding themselves a grocery bag short.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.

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