TOLEDO, Ohio — Job seekers like Deonte Moss are looking for their next chapter.
"I write books, I'm an author but it doesn't pay the bills all the time so I need to make sure that I figure out what I need to do until my dream takes over," Moss said.
He isn't the only one looking to turn the page. Thursday's job fair in west Toledo at the Lucas County Shared Services Building was booked full. There were dozens of applicants looking for their next gig working for Lucas County. Job seekers found lots of options.
"Case manager jobs, administrative jobs, technical jobs," said Lucas County Director for Planning and Development Tonia Saunders.
Finding enough workers is not just problem not only in northwest Ohio, but the state and rest of the country. These days signs that say "hiring" and "apply now" are easy to come by.
"We know coming off of the pandemic that many folks are trying to find their way back into the workforce and try to identify the types of jobs they want to pursue," Saunders said.
Across Ohio through the past eight weeks, unemployment claims have been trending slightly downward, according to new state data.
There are about 33,000 continuous claims in the state right now. That's down for last month but up from the beginning of the summer. The good news is that numbers are about half of what they were last year at this time.
The unemployment rate in Ohio for June was 3.9 percent and across the U.S. it was 3.6 percent.
An official with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said many manufacturers shut down for a week or two during summer for deep cleaning and retooling and will leave workers temporarily unemployed. Supply chain issues are also still hitting companies hard, leaving some without a job.
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