Columbus Economy June 2022



Columbus economy June 2022

For the Columbus economy June 2022 report, we find the metro area continues to post generally positive numbers versus 2021 and 2020. The data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Overall Metro Area June 2022 and Change from June 2021
Labor Force: 1,130,201 +7,231
Employed: 1,087,813 +24,480
Unemployed: 42,388 -17,249
Unemployment Rate: 3.8% -1.5
Total Non-Farm Jobs: 1,125,000 +26,400
Numbers improved versus a year prior across the board, though with relatively slow labor force growth.

Overall Metro Area June 2022 and Change from February 2020 (Pre-Pandemic)
Labor Force: 1,130,201 +9,397
Employed: 1,087,813 +10,973
Unemployed: 42,388 -1,576
Unemployment Rate: 3.8% -0.1
Total Non-Farm Jobs: 1,125,000 +13,600
The metro area continues to be above pre-pandemic levels on all measurements.

Now let’s view the results by industry.

Mining/Logging/Construction
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

45,000————46,300———48,500
This industry has fully recovered from the pandemic and is the highest since at least 1990.

Manufacturing
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

69,600———–72,400———-72,900
Manufacturing has recovered from the pandemic period, but isn’t growing nearly as fast as other industries.

Trade/Transportation/Utilities
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

213,300———-222,500———239,800
Fully recovered, this industry is at all-time highs.

Information
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

15,500———–15,600———-16,700
The pandemic didn’t affect this industry much, as it was already in a general decline since the late 1990s-early 2000s.

Financial Activities
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

84,300———–84,700———-85,400
Numbers for this industry have kind of been all over the place in recent years, but seem to be mostly stagnant since around 2016, so the pandemic didn’t have a strong effect either way.

Professional and Business Services
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022
171,000———-179,400———179,900
As with the financial activities industry, this one has been rather stagnant since about 2015-2016.

Education and Health Services
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

149,700———-158,800———158,600
Education and Health were hard hit during the pandemic, and while they have recovered most of their lost jobs, have been unable to date to push past pre-pandemic highs.

Leisure and Hospitality
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022
86,400———-100,500———-109,600
The hardest hit industry by far, it has recovered the vast majority of lost jobs, but still remains a bit below pre-pandemic levels.

Other Services
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

35,800———–40,400———-42,000
This industry is basically recovered.

Government
6/2020———–6/2021———-6/2022

171,200———-177,000———171,600
Government jobs have struggled to recover, and 2022 is not moving in the right direction, though this may not have anything to do with the pandemic.

Cool Link Columbus Job Density



The Brookings Institute recently released a study on job density, or basically where jobs are most heavily concentrated within metro areas.

Here is how Columbus job density compared to other Ohio metros.

Total Jobs Located within 3 Miles of the Central Business District (Downtown) in 2010, Most to Least
1. Columbus: 157,193
2. Cincinnati: 151,956
3. Cleveland: 127,846
4. Dayton: 75,481
5. Akron: 66,247
6. Toledo: 59,552
7. Youngstown: 54,368

% of Total Metro Jobs Located within 3 Miles of the Central Business District (Downtown) in 2010, Highest to Lowest
1. Youngstown: 27.3%
2. Akron: 24.9%
3. Dayton: 24.5%
4. Toledo: 23.8%
5. Columbus: 21.2%
6. Cincinnati: 17.7%
7. Cleveland: 15.4%

So Columbus has the highest total number of jobs within 3 miles of the CBD, but is in the bottom half for % of total metro jobs in that area.

Jobs Change from 2000-2010 for all Jobs Located within 3 Miles of the CBD, Best to Worst
1. Toledo: -15,412
2. Akron: -16,700
3. Youngstown: -17,307
4. Columbus: -30,338
5. Cincinnati: -31,717
6. Dayton: -32,420
7. Cleveland: -54,134

% Jobs Change from 2000-2010 for all Jobs Located within 3 Miles of the CBD, Best to Worst
1. Cincinnati: -1.9%
2. Cleveland: -2.1%
3. Akron: -2.5%
4. Columbus: -2.5%
5. Toledo: -2.5%
6. Youngstown: -2.9%
7. Dayton: -3.9%

At first glance, this may seem like horrible news, and while it’s not necessarily good, almost all metros lost jobs in this area, even high growth cities like Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, etc. This has a lot to do with the suburbanization of the nation over the last several decades, including during most of the 2000s. Jobs left the central core to spread out into the suburban areas people were moving to.

Total Jobs Located Between 3 and 10 Miles from the CBD in 2010, Highest to Lowest
1. Columbus: 321,508
2. Cleveland: 317,128
3. Cincinnati: 252,789
4. Dayton: 164,453
5. Toledo: 137,339
6. Akron: 117,986
7. Youngstown: 89,711

% of Total Metro Jobs Located Between 3 and 10 Miles from the CBD in 2010, Highest to Lowest
1. Toledo: 54.8%
2. Dayton: 53.4%
3. Youngstown: 45.1%
4. Akron: 44.3%
5. Columbus: 43.4%
6. Cleveland: 38.1%
7. Cincinnati: 29.5%

% Jobs Change 2000-2010 for all Jobs Located Between 3 and 10 Miles from the CBD, Best to Worst
1. Dayton: +1.5%
2. Youngstown: +1.1%
3. Akron: +0.7%
4. Toledo: -0.1%
5. Cincinnati: -1.4%
6. Cleveland: -1.4%
7. Columbus: -2.4%

The positive % changes even while the area lost jobs has to do with how many the share of total metro jobs. While the area may have lost jobs, its share of the entire metro grew as other areas shrank faster.

Finally, the far suburbs…

Total Jobs Located between 10 and 35 Miles from the CBD in 2010, Highest to Lowest
1. Cincinnati: 452,895
2. Cleveland: 386,727
3. Columbus: 262,003
4. Akron: 82,260
5. Dayton: 67,838
6. Youngstown: 54,709
7. Toledo: 53,736

% of Total Metro Jobs Located Between 10 and 35 Miles from the CBD in 2010, Highest to Lowest
1. Cincinnati: 52.8%
2. Cleveland: 46.5%
3. Columbus: 35.4%
4. Akron: 30.9%
5. Youngstown: 27.5%
6. Dayton: 22.0%
7. Toledo: 21.4%

% Jobs Change 2000-2010 for all Jobs Located Between 10 and 35 Miles from the CBD, Best to Worst
1. Columbus: +5.0%
2. Cleveland: +3.5%
3. Cincinnati: +3.3%
4. Dayton: +2.5%
5. Toledo: +2.5%
6. Akron: +1.7%
7. Youngstown: +1.7%

So what do all these numbers show? Well, the larger the metro, the more spread out it seems to be as far as where jobs are located. Smaller metros like Akron and Dayton are more compact. Columbus is the most compact of the 3-Cs and has the most total jobs, by far, within 10 miles of its core of any metro, but not by %. None of the metros saw real jobs growth within 10 miles of their cores, which is to be expected. However, in recent years, urban development has exploded, and companies seem to be shifting jobs closer to the center. It remains to be seen if these are long term trends or just a blip.