COLUMBUS, Ohio – Central Ohio’s economy shook off a brief slump and added more than 12,000 jobs in the final three months of 2014, reducing the unemployment rate to 4.0 percent, well below state and national rates, according to a quarterly report from the regional development group Columbus 2020.
The data from Columbus 2020’s Q4 Economic Update released Monday showed the addition of 12,300 jobs since September — capping an overall increase of 0.8 percent in 2014 — an improvement over a somewhat sluggish third quarter, Kenny McDonald, Columbus 2020 chief economic officer, said.
The region’s unemployment rate was lower than Ohio’s 4.8 percent and the national rate of 5.6 percent and comfortably below pre-recession levels, McDonald said.
The report noted strong rebounds for a number of key sectors, such as government (up 2.6 percent), logistics (2.0 percent), leisure and hospitality (1.8 percent), healthcare and social assistance (1.6 percent) and professional and business services (0.9 percent).
About two-thirds of the employment gain in the logistics sector was in wholesale trade, while much of the gain in professional and business services was in the professional, scientific and technical services sub sector, McDonald said.
Wages showed improvement too. Per-capita personal income in the Columbus area 2013 was $43,662, an 8.7 percent increase since 2009. That exceeded the 5.9 percent U.S. average, though Columbus trails the U.S. average personal income by 2.8 percent, McDonald said.