Numbers tell a story, and a recent batch of Buckeye State numbers should be raising some eyebrows.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says both initial and continued unemployment claims increased in the last week of June. In fact, initial claims increased by 725 from the previous week, for a total of 5,879 initial unemployment claims filed. Continued claims were at their highest level in two months — the eight-week average is 39,377 continued claims filed.

Ohio’s unemployment rate for May was higher than the national average, at 4.2%; and the labor force participation rate was lower than the national average. Here, the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work is only 61.9%, compared with a national average of 62.5%.

And while fewer people are working, there are also figures from a GOBanking Rates study that show being “middle class” in Ohio is moving further out of reach. GOBanking Rates noted it requires considerably more income to reach the next level of wealth now than it did in 2012.

A study by Smart Asset determined that today in Ohio, a single working adult needs to make $80,704 per year to “live comfortably.” Two working adults raising two kids would need to make $209,331 per year. For many of us those figures sound like a dream, until we realize an Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance poll found 70% of the state’s restaurants and hospitality businesses plan to raise their prices in the second quarter of 2024. They’re feeling the pinch, too, and may feel as though they have no choice.

What a mess — made even harder to process by the incessant beat of economic development announcements out of Columbus, designed to make us feel as though prosperity is just around the corner. In a few small pockets of the state, that may be true. The rest of us are ready for our elected officials to look at what’s happening and start looking for ways to do their jobs as though they serve us. All of us.