TOLEDO -- Ohio's unemployment rate is 7.5%. In Lucas County it is 8.6%. Those numbers are down significantly from the rates during the worst part of the Great Recession. As the economy has slowly improved some people who lost their jobs have been able to find new ones while others are still looking. Toledo resident Charles Middlebrook lost his job working as a customer service representative two years ago. "I have been out of work for a couple of years and there seems to be a lot of people looking for the same few jobs that are available, so it is very discouraging," Mr. Middlebrook said. Charles did receive a job lead from The Source and was on his way to an appointment in downtown Toledo when he spoke to WNWO.
Toledo resident Mark Benson had steady unemployment as a truck driver for 15 years, before the economic downturn. "I was a truck driver, making good money and looking towards retirement, and then the economy went bad and the company started laying people off," Mr. Benson said. After a futile one year search to find a new job and after having depleted his savings, Benson decided to go back to college. "Things are working out a little bit, I have enrolled at Owens and hoping to become a social worker when the economy gets better in the next year or so," Mr. Benson said.
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