COLUMBUS – The middle class in the Columbus area is losing ground and is in danger of one day no longer being the economic majority, according to a report released Wednesday.
Central Ohio is not alone, as the Pew Research Center study shows a decline in the middle class in nearly all of the country’s metro areas since 2000.
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The percentage of adults considered middle class in central Ohio fell by nearly 7 percentage points from 2000 to 2014, from 58.3 percent down to 51.6 percent, the report said.
In central Ohio, the percentage of adults considered lower-income rose 3 points to 23.6 percent in 2014, and those considered upper income rose 3.8 points to 24.9 percent.
By Pew’s definition, a three-person household was middle class in 2014 if its annual income fell between $42,000 and $125,000.
“It tells the story about where the economy has gone over the past several years. We don’t have the traditional, lower-skill manufacturing jobs,” said Jung Kim, who oversees the economic and business research for Columbus 2020, the region’s economic-development arm.
Case in point: Columbus Castings is laying off workers in waves this week, heading toward a temporary shut-down of manufacturing by Friday as it continues to seek a buyer to stave off a permanent closing, company officials said today.
Most of the roughly 800 employees at the South Side plant have been laid off, and many of those that remain will be part of layoffs on Thursday and Friday. It is not clear to what extent the company will maintain its office and maintenance staff once manufacturing is halted.
“We’re temporarily halting production and performing maintenance on our equipment at the same time,” said Nick Crandall, human resources manager, reading from a statement. “The impacted employees are being placed on a temporary layoff while we continue to work with the buyer. Our customers have been informed and are aware that we have temporarily have halted production.”
He declined to specify how many people would remain at work after this Friday.
This follows the company’s disclosure on April 20 that it was likely to stop manufacturing in as soon as June and was in talks with a potential buyer. The layoffs this week are an acceleration of that timetable.
Last week, the company stopped its front-end operations by halting the foundry’s metal-melting work, leading to a layoff of more than 150 employees. At that time, the company said it would maintain other departments to fill orders.
The middle class across the country is becoming hollowed out as the lower-income and higher-income tiers grow.
The Pew analysis has found that in nearly one-quarter of metro areas, middle-class adults no longer make up a majority, up from fewer than 10 percent of metro areas in 2000.
Middle class adults now make up less than half the population in such cities as New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Houston.
-By Mark Williams and Dan Gearino