As company after company in Northeast Ohio gave workers pink slips this year, the region saw nearly 7,000 jobs disappear through October.
The decline raises a concern among some economists that the region's historically reliable industrial supply chain could suffer irreparable damage.
Area-wide employment figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for January through October were consistently lower than those from the same months of 2007. Numbers for both years are not seasonally adjusted.