Youngstown Daily Legal News

Columbus drops in economic ranking

ALLISON SLONAKER
Special to the Legal News
Published: January 12, 2016

In an annual report ranking cities on their economies, Columbus remains the highest ranked city in Ohio, though it slipped overall from 52nd to 41st from last year.

However, Columbus has climbed significantly up the Milken Institute’s annual Best Performing City Index over the last five years. In 2010 the city was 108th.

The Index ranks the top 200 large and 201 small U.S. metropolitan areas according to how well they able to create and sustain jobs and economic growth.

Of the eight Ohio cities ranked, the majority of them fell down the list. Five of them were ranked lower than they were in 2014.

However, three cities — Canton-Massillon, Dayton and Youngstown-Warren — climbed up the list.

Canton-Massillon is ranked 127th up from 150th in 2014; Dayton is 174th, up from 186 in 2014; and Youngstown-Warren is up four spots to 195th.

Job, wage and salary, and technology growth are the components included in the process.

The index is usually a good indication of the underlying structural performance of the regional economies, according to the Milken Institute website.

“More than ever, America’s best-performing cities demonstrate what we call the innovation advantage,” Ross DeVol, chief research officer of the Milken Institute and one of the report’s authors, said in the release. “That is witnessed not just in ‘traditional’ technology but in the importance of software, social media and even cutting-edge health innovation.”

Behind Columbus, Cincinnati was the next-highest ranked in the state at 94th, down from 63rd in 2014.

Toledo fell to 162nd from 151st, Cleveland-Elyria fell from 133rd to 165th and Akron landed at 168th, down from 152nd in 2014.

Nationally, six of the top 25 large metro areas were from California.

Topping the list was San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, which moved up three spots from 2014 due to it’s environment for entrepreneurship and red-hot tech-fueled economy, with high job growth and an average annual earnings of $116,000 versus the national average of $61,500.

San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco fell to second after topping the list in 2014, followed by San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande (10th), San Diego (19th), San Rafael (23rd) and Santa Rosa (25th).

Colorado had four cities in the top 25, including Greely (9th), Fort Collins (14th), Denver-Aurora-Lakewood (16th), and Boulder 22nd).

Texas followed with three in the top 25, with two in the top five: Austin-Round Rock (fourth), Dallas-Plano-Irving (fifth) and San Antonio-New Braunfels (12th).

The report also ranked the top small metro areas in the country.

Fargo, N.D. tops the list for the second straight year, followed by Bismarck, N.D., Ames, Iowa, Janesville-Beloit, Wis., and Odessa, Texas.

Of the small Ohio metros, Lima is ranked at 142nd, down from 111 in 2014, Springfield came in at 162nd, seeing a large fall from 62nd in 2014, and Mansfield was 173rd, down from 160th in 2014.

Shreveport-Bossier City, La. filled the final spot on the list for the large metro areas and Pine Bluff, Ara. claimed the spot for the small cities.

“This year’s Best-Performing Cities index tells a tale of two sectors—technology and oil—moving regional economies in opposite directions,” says DeVol. “In the shale oil patch, plummeting energy prices are undercutting the performance of those metros reliant on the sector, such as Tulsa and El Paso. But in Top 25 cities such as San Francisco, Austin, Seattle and Denver, the softer side of high tech is fueling urban economies, with stellar job and wage growth. As cities across America focus on fostering high-quality jobs, our best-performing cities are showing the way.”

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