Northeast Ohio manufacturers are employing nearly 92,000 fewer people than they did 15 years ago, but their collective economic output has still managed to grow 6 percent in that time.

That's because the workers who have survived to see 2007 are producing, on average, 50 percent more than their 1992 counterparts.

That's one of the insights uncovered by researchers at Team NEO, who have been digging deep into public and private databases searching for clues to Northeast Ohio's economic transition.

Team NEO Chief Executive Tom Waltermire spoke Tuesday to more than 100 business, academic and government officials at his biannual State of the Region meeting and shared some of the nuggets recently mined by his nonprofit economic development organization.

While U.S. Census figures often make the headlines, they barely brush the surface of the region's complex evolution, Waltermire said. The real story is buried beneath reams of data that can be sliced dozens of ways.

Each quarter, Team NEO whose self-appointed mission is business attraction and retention considers a different aspect of the regional economy.

This time, its researchers turned their high-powered focus on the state of manufacturing, looking at income, output and employment trends in 16 counties.

Manufacturing is the slowest growing sector of the economy, but Waltermire said some people might be surprised to learn it has grown.

While Waltermire said it's not his job to interpret the data, he said he suspects that global competition is forcing manufacturers to learn new processes and develop technologies that make them more efficient.

''As the drive for quality and precision and cost competitiveness goes up, people keep inventing and innovating and finding new ways of doing things,'' he said in an interview before Tuesday's meeting.

Waltermire shared an anecdote about visiting the Hoover Co. plant in North Canton about four years ago, when he saw vacuum cleaners being assembled by hand.

''I just figured, this ain't gonna last. Someone should take a picture of this, because this is an anachronism,'' Waltermire said.

Earlier this year, 1,000 Hoover workers learned that their Stark County facility would be closed.

''They obviously didn't cut it. They couldn't change fast enough,'' Waltermire said.

On an individual level, such loss is ''heart-wrenching,'' Waltermire said. And adjustments in the industry have far-reaching consequences.

For instance, people who lose traditional manufacturing jobs need to be trained for new careers. That can be a challenge, since many fields that Ohio is nurturing from biosciences to advanced energy don't employ nearly as many as the rubber and steel factories once did.

Still, Team NEO's research shows Northeast Ohio's economy is diversifying.

In the time that manufacturing has grown 6 percent, all other sectors combined have grown 42 percent.

Some of the leaders:

Professional and technical services have increased their collective output 74 percent.

Information companies have produced 64 percent more.

And finance and insurance have grown 60 percent.

The past 15 years have seen highs and lows, but Northeast Ohio's economy has grown 32 percent in that time. Another 1 percent growth in gross regional output is expected this year, the Team NEO report said.

In addition to looking at long-term trends, researchers monitor quarterly employment data.

They found that while total employment in the region is still at one of the highest levels in the last five years, a four-quarter moving average of total jobs took a slight dip this month.

In the past year, jobs grew in professional and business services (2,700) and in education and health care (2,300) but fell in manufacturing (by 9,500) and trade, transportation and utilities (by 1,400.)