Oct. 21--The unemployment rate for Mentor, Lake County's largest city, is now the second lowest of all Ohio towns with populations of 50,000 or more residents.

For such rates in the state's 88 counties, Geauga County is second lowest, Lake County the fifth lowest and Cuyahoga County still above the average state unemployment rate, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

Despite jobless numbers decreasing in July and August through now, all three counties and Mentor are still above the same rates in September a year ago.

"Unfortunately, there are individuals who have been out of work and now they've given up and are no longer in the job search, and we have two businesses which will close this month in our city," Mentor Economic Development Director Ronald M. Traub said.

"But certainly, the unemployment rate continues to decline. In part, that's due to companies which have come to this city in the course of the last month, like CLS Facility Service, which provides consulting services to individuals from conventional HVAC (heating, venting and air conditioning) to more complicated things like energy auditing."

Tom Thielman, executive director of the Mentor Economic Assistance Corp., agrees with Traub.

"We hope the low rate is because of good economic development programs. A lot of our companies are maybe not as much affected as an area hit hard by the automobile industry. But we're still not seeing as many job increases as we'd like," Thielman said.

In a city with 27,600 people still working, 2,100 or 7.2 percent of the Mentor unemployed were seeking jobs in September. That's down from 7.7 percent in August this year but not yet matching the lower jobless rate of 4.8 percent in September last year.

For 50,000-resident cities, Mentor's current 7.2 percent unemployment is second in Ohio to Cleveland Heights' 6.2 percent, or 1,600 jobless, in Cuyahoga County.

Also in Cuyahoga, Euclid's jobless rate of 9.7 percent in August dropped to 9.3 percent (2,300 people) in September and Cleveland fell from 10.9 to 10.3 percent (18,500 jobless) in the same period.

Geauga County jobless rate went from 7.9 percent in June, to 7.4 in July, 7.0 in August and 6.5 (3,200 people) in September. Geauga's unemployment rate was 5 percent in September 2008.

Lake County's jobless percentile rate went from 9.5 in June, 8.8 in July, 8.6 in August and 7.9 (10,300) in September. The unemployment rate was 5.4 percent in September last year.

The state's unemployment rate dropped from 10.5 percent in August to 9.7 percent (572,000 jobless people) in September. That's still above the state's 6.6 percent jobless rate in September last year.

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