Northeast Ohio's weak overall economic condition since 2000 is nothing new - Economic Analyst George Zeller has said for years that regardless of the national picture,Cuyahoga County has been in recession since 2000.
The surprising thing about his latest assessment of the County is that if you take Cleveland out of the picture - the total number of jobs in Cuyahoga County is actually increasing.
ZELLER: Cleveland lost nine per cent of its jobs, while at the same time, the suburbs actually gained .2%.
However, Zeller says when it comes to manufacturing jobs, the suburbs were the biggest losers.
Cleveland's bright spot is the Health Care industry, where it gained many positions, but in nearly all other fields, especially in finance, Cleveland was hemorrhaging jobs. Zeller says the figure for overall jobs lost in the county since 2000, is about 78,000.
Another disturbing pattern he says, was that the record malaise felt in the state as a whole.
ZELLER: We have now gone 150 months in a row where our job growth in Ohio has been slower than the rest of the country. That's never happened in the whole history of Ohio before.
Zeller says keys to reversing the trend are increased corporate investing in the city itself, and slowing the rate of sprawl.
Rick Jackson, 90.3.
