EATON — Preble County’s unemployment rate dropped to 7.1 percent in July, down from 9 percent in June, according to the Preble County Job and Family Services monthly report.
Director of Job and Family Services Becky Sorrell provided this update to the Preble County Board of Commissioners during their meeting on Monday, Aug. 31.
The unemployment rate has declined steadily since it reached a high of 14.4 percent in April.
“We are still seeing customers in the job center by appointment and that’s going very well,” Sorrell said. “Still having contact with employers, and the youth program is still very active making contacts with their customers.”
There were 264 Ohio Works First (OWF) cash recipients in July, down from 271 in June, and 3,975 food assistance recipients, down from 4,043 last month.
“When I looked at [OWF cash and food assistance recipients], technically the last three months have been the lowest,” Commissioner Rodney Creech said. “Is that due to additional unemployment and funding? Technically, you think the number would be higher.”
Sorrell agreed, but cautioned that OWF cash recipients are primarily children.
“So those are primarily children that we’ve placed with kinship or they’ve just done that outside of human services,” she said. “We only have usually less than 10 adults who receive cash assistance. For food assistance, I would assume – I have no way to really measure that – but I would assume it is because they’ve either received the additional unemployment money, although that wouldn’t count against them really for their food stamps.”
Additionally, collections from child support totaled $554,670.69 in July, and for 2020, collections have totaled $3,733,366.78.
“A lot of the same that you can normally expect at this time of year and actually a little more than what we’ve been collecting in the last few months,” Sorrell said.
The Preble County Board of Commissioners meet every Monday and Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the Preble County Courthouse. These meetings are open to the public.
