Monthly Civilian Labor Force estimates from the Ohio Bureau of Labor Market show that Mentor's unemployment rate decreased for the fourth-consecutive month in September, to 5.1 percent.

The rate has not been this low since October 2008, city officials report. For the same month a year ago (September, 2011), the unemployment rate was 5.9 percent.

In Lake County, the unemployment rate also decreased last month, to 5.7 percent, down from 5.9 percent in August.

Mentor continues to have the lowest unemployment rate for any community in Ohio with a population over 50,000.

It is tied for third-lowest overall (with Gahana and Westerville) for any of the 65 cities for which unemployment numbers are calculated.

Meanwhile, Ohio’s unemployment rate declined 0.3 percent in September to 6.5 percent.

-- Betsy Scott, BScott@News-Herald., @ReporterBetsy