The local economy continues to make slow gains.
Employment in the 18-county Northeast Ohio region was up almost 30,000 jobs — to about 2.07 million workers — in the third quarter of this year compared with the 2010 third quarter.
This is according to the latest quarterly economic report from Team NEO, a regional business attraction group that serves as the area’s arm for the state’s public-private JobsOhio job creation initiative.
Employment continues to fall far short of pre-recession levels, with the total number of jobs down by 91,000 from the third quarter of 2007, ended Sept. 30. The recession officially began in December 2007.
The statistics are not adjusted for seasonal variations.
The region’s unemployment rate for the third quarter of this year was at it lowest point — 8.5 percent — since December 2008, the Team NEO analysis of federal statistics shows.
This compares with Ohio’s jobless rate of 8.5 percent for September.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will release the October rate for the state on Nov. 18.
Summit County, meanwhile, had an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent in September, down from 8.3 percent in August.
Nationally, the jobless rate for October fell to a six-month low of 9 percent.
Team NEO’s quarterly review also notes that the Northeast Ohio gross regional product (GRP) — the value of goods and services produced, adjusted for inflation — is expected to increase, growing by 1.1 percent this year to $180 billion.
This would follow last year’s 2.3 percent rise in the Northeast Ohio GRP to $178 billion, the first significant increase since 2005.
Team NEO noted that the region’s manufacturing GRP accounts for more than 18 percent of total GRP. This compares with 12 percent nationally.
Team NEO said that by 2015, the region’s manufacturing GRP is expected to outpace the nation’s output by nearly 10 percent.
Fueling the regional growth is the transition from traditional manufacturing to advanced manufacturing in areas such as chemicals and fabricated metals.
This would reverse an earlier trend of output losses, with Northeast Ohio sustaining a 9.9 percent loss in manufacturing GRP from 2008 to 2010. This is according to a September report from the regional manufacturing advocacy group MAGNET.
The regional decline was greater than that for the nation, which suffered a 6.3 percent decrease in manufacturing output from 2008 to 2010.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.
