COLUMBUS, Ohio – Central Ohio is poised to experience its biggest job growth since the end of the recession.
Local economist Bill LaFayette’s annual report calls for more than 18,000 new jobs in the region, with growth in the healthcare and leisure industries.
Hear an interview with Bill Lafayette here.
Columbus has rebounded from the recession more quickly than the rest of the state and the nation, making back all the jobs had been lost nearly two years ago and now can boast of having more people working than when the downturn began.
“We’re now 16,000 or so jobs to the good. The U.S. is still about 15 percent down…It should make that up [in the] middle of this year,” he said.
His forecast calls for nearly 1 million jobs in the Columbus area by the end of this year.
His outlook for Ohio as a whole is less rosy. Technological improvements and population decline will keep the state from recovering as fast as the rest of the nation. Ohio has only recovered 49 percent of the jobs lost to the recession, LaFayette’s report said.
LaFayette’s report shows the service sector will drive the 1.9 percent job growth he expects to see in 2014. That includes a 4.4 percent increase in hiring in health services and 2.7 percent in educational services by private schools and trade schools.
Construction will also be a strong performer, adding 4.1 percent more jobs, compared with 2.9 percent across the nation as a whole.
Moving and selling merchandise is an important, and growing, segment of the central Ohio economy. LaFayette’s report.
Wholesale and retail trade, transportation and utilities account for more than 180,000 jobs in the region and he predicts the number will. Increase by 2.6 percent in 2014.