Van Wert County unemployment rates continued their downward trend from September, decreasing nearly a full percent point -- from 3.6 percent the month before to 2.7 percent in October, according to figures supplied by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services on Tuesday.

According to the ODJFS, the county tied with Auglaize County for the seventh lowest jobless rate in the state. Three counties Mercer, Medina, and Geauga tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 2.3 percent. Medina and Geauga counties, both in northeast Ohio, also had the lowest statewide jobless rate in September.

Two other counties, Holmes and Lake, were tied for fourth in the state at 2.4 percent, while Putnam County was sixth at 2.6 percent.

At the other end of the spectrum, five counties had jobless rates higher than 5 percent, including Lucas County (Toledo), which had the state's highest unemployment at 7 percent; Jackson County, 5.6 percent; Meigs County, 5.3 percent; and Jefferson and Monroe counties, tied at 5.1 percent.

Only four counties saw their unemployment rates increase, while one county's rate remained the same, and the remaining 83 counties saw a decrease in unemployment in October.

Ohio's comparable unemployment rate for the month was 3.5 percent.

Jobless rates for other neighboring counties include Paulding County, at 3.3 percent, and Allen County, with unemployment of 3.6 percent.

Statistically, in Van Wert County, the ODJFS, in cooperation with the U.S. Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported that 14,400 of the county's estimated 14,800-member labor pool were employed in October, while 400 were unemployed during the same period.