Unemployment Down, Hiring Up: Cleveland's Economy Is Improving

CLEVELAND, OH — For the first time in 19 months, the unemployment rate, year-over-year, fell in the Cleveland Metro area, the Federal Reserve announced. While job losses continue to mount in education, health, trade transportation and utilities industries, they're being offset by jobs in the professional and business services sectors.

The Fed looked at economic factors in the city between December 2016 and December 2017. It determined that unemployment fell 0.3 percent in December 2017, the first year-over-year unemployment decline in 19 months.

The unemployment rate in metro Cleveland is 5.4 percent, which is well above both the national average (4.1 percent) and the rest of Ohio (4.7 percent). Still, the drop in unemployment is an encouraging sign of life for a city that has frequently been the butt of national jokes about poverty and dilapidation.

"This change is an encouraging reversal of the recent trend of a slowly climbing unemployment rate driven by growth in the labor force paired with tepid growth in employment. However, it will be important to watch if this reversal remains a lasting change in the local labor market in the coming months," the Fed said on their website.

There are other signs of life in the metro Cleveland area, too. The median home value rose to $137,000 in December 2017 (a 5.3 percent increase versus December 2016). That's above the Ohio median home value of $130,000, but well below the national median home value of $206,300.

Between June 2016 and June 2017, more than 8,000 jobs were added to the metro Cleveland area. Ohio is now 97.1 percent of the way to restoring pre-Recession level employment levels.

"Taken at face value, the fact that the metro area’s number of jobs has not returned to its prerecession number suggests that Cleveland’s employment has not fully recovered from the economic downturn. However, it is important to consider that the metro area has a smaller population than it did 10 years ago," the Fed said.

And, while debt per consumer fell in the Cleveland area, income per person rose by 0.7 percent to $50,011, bringing the state in-line with national averages.

To see the Federal Reserve's full report on Cleveland's economic health, click here.

Photo from Rick Uldricks, Patch