CLEVELAND --- The northeastern Ohio region’s gross regional product grew 45% from 1990 to 2015, although employment gained only 3% over the period, Team NEO reports.
The quarterly Cleveland Plus Economic Review, released Sunday, projects that northeastern Ohio’s gross regional product will grow another 14% to reach a $247 billion economy and employment will fall to by 5% by 2025.
“Northeast Ohio’s economy has grown and diversified since 1990,” said David T. Abbott, executive director of The George Gund Foundation and Team NEO co-chairman. “While the pace of growth has been slower than desired, our expansion into other industries has made us more resilient to contractions in manufacturing and provided us with opportunities for faster, long-term growth.”
Manufacturing remains the largest sector of northeastern Ohio’s economy, the report shows, accounting for 19%. Despite declines in employment, manufacturing has grown 13% since 1990 and is expected to grow 34% over the next decade to become a $56 billion sector, or 23% of the economy.
At the same time, manufacturing employment has declined 40% over the past 25 years. Its losses have been offset by growth in health care (+64%), professional, scientific and technical services (+21%), and headquarters (+100%) employment.
“The strength of Northeast Ohio’s health-care sector provides a solid foundation for growth into related areas such as biomedical -- one of the high-potential sectors identified by the Regional Economic Competitiveness Strategy for increased focus and investment,” said Grant Goodrich, interim CEO of Team NEO.
In addition, all of the economic indicators tracked in the report are trending up year-over-year:
Team NEO publishes the Cleveland Plus Economic Review quarterly to provide a holistic picture of the regional economy. It uses Moody’s Economy.com and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and Ohio’s Labor Market Information to aggregate regional figures.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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