By JON CHAVEZ,
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
Article published September 29, 2009
U.S. job growth between 2000 and 2008 averaged 3.8 percent, but the Toledo area did not experience it. Instead, the area lost 27,000 jobs, decreases that affected every employment sector.
About 150 Toledo-area economic development officials, businessmen, and others heard that sobering report yesterday at a forum to pinpoint where the local economy is and where to focus future efforts.
"This is kind of a rallying call," said Steve Weathers, president and CEO of the Regional Growth Partnership, one of the sponsors of the forum held at the University of Toledo's Health Science Campus, formerly Medical College of Ohio. "There are some metrics for future development. But overall this lets us draw in the sand where the starting line is," he added.
The three-hour presentation offered positive reports on where the area stands in industries targeted for growth, such as advanced energy, transportation, bioscience, advanced materials and manufacturing, and architecture and engineering.
But it was the state of the Toledo metro area in demographic, social, and economic terms - a report card by researchers Neil Reid of the UT and Mike Carroll of Bowling Green State University - that caught attendees' attention.
Their data from 2000-2008 showed the area with an overall modest population decline of 1.5 percent. But only a small portion of that was due to natural factors. There would have been growth had not 28,000 people moved from the area, their data showed.
"The problem here is people are leaving northwest Ohio," Mr. Reid said. In social developments, violent crime has increased nearly 49 percent, and property crimes have gone up significantly, Mr. Carroll said.
The number of people receiving government assistance has risen, as has the number of people receiving food stamps. Median sales of existing single-family homes have fallen 41 percent in eight years, the data showed.
Wages have increased 1.5 percent locally, but 4.5 percent nationally. In 2000, the metro area ranked 125th out of 366 metro areas in terms of per capita personal income. Now it ranks 186th.
The 27,000 jobs lost would not have occurred had the Toledo area had the 3.8 percent growth that occurred nationwide. At that rate, the area would have lost about 3,000 jobs total because 24,000 jobs would have been created, Mr. Weathers said.
Tom Brady, founder of Plastic Technologies Inc. in Springfield Township, said it is important to note that there are new sectors, like alternative energy, that are growing but haven't offset the losses in older sectors yet. "This is a time when we have to recalibrate who we are," Mr. Brady said of the metro area. "There are subsets of sectors that are currently in a growth phase."
Bolstering that argument, Mr. Reid said the University of Toledo ranked seventh in the United States in 2006 among universities turning out new business start-ups. From 2007 through 2009, the university has produced spin-off businesses at six times the average for U.S. universities, he said.
Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.