First the not-so good news. The report released this morning by The Brookings Institution indicates that even while the economy of the Great Lakes metropolitan areas grew last quarter, job gains still lagged far behind the rest of the country.
While the 100 largest U.S. metros collectively lost 4.6 percent of the jobs they had when the recession began in 2007, Cleveland has lost 7.3% of its jobs and Akron's job count dropped 5.7%.
Youngstown's job losses were nearly triple the national decline, trailing only Detroit in the Great Lakes region. Statistically, that is considerably worse than in either the 2001 and 1990 economic downturns.
But the Brookings Institution study `also' suggests the region could make a strong economic comeback but not in the fields which formerly dominated the industrial midwest.
Jennifer Vey is a fellow at Brookings, and helped author the report.
JENNIFER VEY:
"There are reasons to be hopeful, provided that the right policy mechanisms are put in place at all levels - to really help leverage the assets of these communities, like universities, medical institutions, the existing manufacturing prowess, the emerging strength and clean energy coming out of places in the midwest, and that we really want to capitalize on a lot of those strengths."
Based on four key economic indicators, Cleveland fought back to the national average for economic performance from 2008 to 2009. Akron is below the average, but has improved.
Vey says this is one of the first reports to focus on recessionary impacts, strictly on a regionwide level.
Rick Jackson, 90.3
