Champaign County’s unemployment rate increased at the end of 2018, according to information released Wednesday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The county’s unemployment rate in December 2018 was 4.1 percent with 18,800 employed people and 800 unemployed people. In November 2018, the county’s jobless rate was 3.5 percent with 19,100 employed people and 700 unemployed people.

Champaign County’s unemployment rate in December 2017 was 3.9 percent with 18,800 employed people and 800 unemployed people.

Champaign County was one of 16 counties in Ohio with an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent or lower in December 2018. Mercer County had the lowest rate in the state at 3.1 percent while Monroe County had the highest at 9.2 percent.

Ohio’s unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in December 2018, unchanged from November. Ohio’s nonagricultural wage and salary employment increased 2,900 over the month, from a revised 5,647,900 in November to 5,650,800 in December 2018.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in December was 265,000, up 2,000 from 263,000 in November. The number of unemployed has decreased by 16,000 in the past 12 months from 281,000. The December unemployment rate for Ohio decreased from 4.9 percent in December 2017.

The U.S. unemployment rate for December was 3.9 percent, up from 3.7 percent in November, and down from 4.1 percent in December 2017.