Columbus Economy – News & Updates

[mrpoppinzs]

I don’t think that Columbus was hit by the recession as much as other places so I assume as a recovery hits those places would grow (recover) faster. That said it seems like a huge disparity and I would love to see the methodology.

[News]

Ohio tops for job creation
Jun 21, 2013, 11:41am EDT
Evan Weese
Web coordinator-Business First

Ohio proved the best state for job creation in May, leading the U.S. with a 32,100 month-over-month employment increase. That marked Ohio’s biggest month of gains since February 1999, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The numbers are seasonally adjusted.

READ MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2013/06/21/ohio-tops-for-job-creation.html

[Chris Sunami]

mrpoppinzs said:
I don’t think that Columbus was hit by the recession as much as other places so I assume as a recovery hits those places would grow (recover) faster. That said it seems like a huge disparity and I would love to see the methodology.

That would be my guess as well. We were protected from the worst of the economic downturn by our combination of OSU and the city government. That made us look really good (#4!) when everyone else was down. Now that other places are recovering, our place on the list is simply renormalizing.

However, by that logic, Austin should have gone through a similar swing, which it clearly didn’t… :o

[jbcmh81]

bjones7 said:
Wow number 4 to number 43. Yikes.

Things did slow down the first 4 months of the year, but the metro gained something like 12,000 non-farm jobs in May, one of the best figures of any metro in the nation. The labor force is growing, unemployment is falling. The unemployment rate is getting down towards 5% now, well below the national average. I also don’t understand how they can rank a month that hasn’t even ended and we have no economic news about. Where are they getting their information from, exactly? So I would consider that ranking somewhat outdated, and somewhat useless. Columbus has a pretty good economy.

[GCrites80s]

ricospaz said:
I blame the 7-11’s closing.

It does seem to be that hypersensitive. Which means it’s a practically useless metric. Just another dumb numbered list, like most of ’em.

[Cbusbill]

jbcmh81 said:
Things did slow down the first 4 months of the year, but the metro gained something like 12,000 non-farm jobs in May, one of the best figures of any metro in the nation.

Where you are quoting that from? I don’t mean to be skeptical, but 12,000 net new jobs in a single month for the Columbus market seems unfathomable. I’d expect that to be more of an annual figure. Awesome news if I’m wrong…

[jbcmh81]

Cbusbill said:
Where you are quoting that from? I don’t mean to be skeptical, but 12,000 net new jobs in a single month for the Columbus market seems unfathomable. I’d expect that to be more of an annual figure. Awesome news if I’m wrong…

It’s for the whole metro and it’s from the BLS. Non-farm jobs rose from 954,100 to 967,000, or +12,900. This was the 5th best increase of the top 50 largest metros.

[News]

Columbus economy clears early speed bump to reach ‘cruising speed,’ PNC says
Aug 14, 2013, 3:13pm EDT
Evan Weese
Staff reporter – Business First

The Columbus economy “hit a speed bump” early in 2013 but was back into “cruising speed” by mid-year, according to a quarterly report from PNC Financial Services Group. Despite the early blip, Columbus proved strong relative to its Midwest neighbors and likely will remain so for the next 18 months, PNC’s third-quarter Columbus Market Outlook showed.

READ MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2013/08/14/columbus-economy-clears-early-speed.html

[News]

Dec 27, 2013, 1:11pm EST
Columbus’ economy outperforming rest of Ohio, Federal Reserve says
Evan Weese
Staff reporter – Business First

Make no bones about it, Columbus is the driver in Ohio’s economic recovery, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The Central Ohio region is outperforming the rest of the state, along with much of the Midwest and U.S. metropolitan areas, based on measures of employment, housing and other economic indicators, says a fourth-quarter report from the Cleveland Fed, which carries the forthright title, Columbus – leading the state to recovery.

READ MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/blog/2013/12/columbus-economy-outperforming-rest.html

[tdziemia]

The abovementioned article also referenced a Philadelphia Fed report which showed that the state of Ohio was one of only two states in the nation that showed weakness in November as measured by a specific index (i.e. the index actually decreased by a statistically significant amount). That comes after more than 40 consecutive months of increase of the same index (it is based on nonfarm employment statistics and payroll increases adjusted for inflation). The index has been shown to track with with state level GDP increase.

So, even while things may be going well in central Ohio, it may not be true for Ohio at large.

[jbcmh81]

tdziemia said:
The abovementioned article also referenced a Philadelphia Fed report which showed that the state of Ohio was one of only two states in the nation that showed weakness in November as measured by a specific index (i.e. the index actually decreased by a statistically significant amount). That comes after more than 40 consecutive months of increase of the same index (it is based on nonfarm employment statistics and payroll increases adjusted for inflation). The index has been shown to track with with state level GDP increase.

So, even while things may be going well in central Ohio, it may not be true for Ohio at large.

That’s kind of been the reality for a long time now.

[tdziemia]

jbcmh81 said:
That’s kind of been the reality for a long time now.

Maybe the state’s recovery has lagged Columbus’ for a long time. What’s new is that this index has been trending negative for the state in the last few months.
That has potential implications for Columbus. If jobs and and tax revenues decrease at the state level, that’s not good news for a couple of our largest employers here.

[I_am_Father_McKenzie]

’Exchange may boost Columbus exports’

[I_am_Father_McKenzie]

Economic momentum of the 52 largest metros. Columbus 15th.

[News]

Economist Predicts Good, Not Great 2014 For Central Ohio Economy
January 8, 2014
by Mike Thompson
WOSU Director of News and Public Affairs

Long-time Central Ohio economist Bill Lafayette says 2014 certainly won’t be a boom year for the Columbus area economy, but it definitely will feel better. He predicts decent economic and job growth in Central Ohio in the coming year.

In his annual economic forecast to the Columbus Metropolitan Club, Lafayette, the owner of Regionimics, predicted Central Ohio will see 18,000 net new jobs in 2014 – that’s job growth of 1.9% .

READ MORE: http://wosu.org/2012/news/2014/01/08/economist-predicts-good-not-great-2014-for-central-ohio-economy/

[Author]

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