COLUMBUS, Ohio – A report on the central Ohio economy indicate there are more people choosing to live here, more of them are working and they are earning more.
Unemployment rates in dropped to 4.4 percent, well below September state (5.6) and national (5.9) rates. According to a quarterly economic update from the regional development group Columbus2020, 61.9 percent of adults in the Columbus area were employed, compared with 57.5 percent in Ohio the nation as a whole.
“The Columbus region has excelled during the economic recovery like few other large U.S. metropolitan areas…The Columbus region’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since December 2001, and it’s also the fifth lowest unemployment rate of all metropolitan areas in the nation with more than 1 million residents,” said George Mokrzan, director of economics at Huntington Trust and Huntington National Bank.
The report says the area’s population grew by 3.2 percent from April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2013, outpacing the nationwide growth rate of 2.4 percent and Ohio’s 0.3 percent during the same period. The report’s data suggests city is younger than many, with higher-than-average populations of people in age groups under 45.
The median household income of nearly $55,000 in central Ohio is also higher than state and U.S. averages, the report said.
Home in the second quarter of 2014 were up 6.6 percent from the year before, compared to gains of 4.1 percent in Ohio and 5.3 percent nationwide.