EATON —Preble County finished 2015 with an unemployment rate of 4.6 percent according to a recent report released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The 4.6 unemployment rate is the highest in the county since July of 2015 and was as low as 4 percent, in August.

Mercer County saw the lowest unemployment rate for any county in the state with 3.1 percent of residents currently unemployed for the month of December, according to officials.

Monroe County in southeast Ohio saw the highest unemployment rate for the month of December, with 10.7 percent of residents currently being unemployed.

As a whole, Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.6 percent for the month of December compared to 4.8 percent nationally.

Preble County Job and Family Services gave cash assistance to 273 residents while 4,500 received food assistance in December.

The county saw 503 residents apply for assistance in December. In total, 7,090 applied in 2015, officials said.

Preble County Children Services received 695 reports for the year of 2015, including 62 in the month of December.

Of those 695 cases, 262 cases were “screened out” and 86 were listed as “information only.”

The county currently has 78 on-going cases from the month of December, slightly above the monthly average of 75 for the year 2015.