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JUNE 29 - JULY 5, 2015
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Region loses 512 jobs in May By SCOTT SUTTELL ssuttell@crain.com
Northeast Ohio’s job-creation engine was in idle last month, as employment in the region fell by a little more than 500 jobs. The seven counties of the Cleveland-Akron metropolitan area employed 1,162,950 people in May, according to seasonally adjusted data in the latest Ahola Crain’s Employment (ACE) Report. That number was 512 jobs lower than April, when regional employment was 1,163,462. Regional employment for the year has barely moved — it’s up by 330 jobs from the 1,162,620 jobs in January reported by the ACE data. Service industries in the region last month saw a decline of 404 jobs, to 943,558 in May from 943,962 in April, according to the ACE Report data. Goods-producing employment fell by 108 jobs, to 219,392 in May from 219,500 the prior month. However, Jack Kleinhenz, the Cleveland Heights economist who created the ACE model, noted that
the May report “indicates the region realized an increase of approximately 9,500 more jobs than the same month a year earlier,” and that both the service and goodsproducing sectors are showing year-over-year gains. Kleinhenz said the May estimate of seasonally adjusted total employment of 1,162,950 “is above both the three-month and sixmonth moving average and augurs well for further job growth in the near term and suggests the regional economy is on an upswing in its trajectory.” Like much of the nation, he said, Northeast Ohio “experienced a soft patch in first-quarter growth,” driven to some extent by a particularly harsh winter. In addition, he said, U.S. manufacturing production in the last few months “declined as a number of headwinds have reduced output and probably impacted our regional goods-producing businesses.” The ACE Report is based on payroll data from about 3,000 predominantly small and midsize employers that is gathered by The Ahola
Corp., a Brecksville payroll and human capital management firm. Kleinhenz’s analysis includes other economic indicators including construction data and retail sales. The Cleveland-Akron region’s lackluster job production so far in 2015 is illustrative of a longer-term trend in Ohio. The state is one of 15 where the number of jobs as of May remained below the levels recorded before the Great Recession. The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank, on June 19 issued a report showing that total employment in Ohio in May was 5,407,000, down 12,600 jobs, or 0.2%, from December 2007. The report was based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of late, though, Ohio is doing better, having added 22,000 jobs in the last three months. EPI said in the report that there are some positive signs nationally, including slight increases in state unemployment rates, which suggest that more workers are searching for jobs.
the company declined to take sides in the debate over which route the pipeline should take.
cide the matter of the Nexus route. Spectra, at the direction of FERC, recently investigated the possibility of using an alternative route proposed by Green and determined that it would not lessen the risk to health and safety, and would increase the cost and the time it would take to complete the pipeline. Spectra now will attempt to continue to survey its proposed route, using court orders when it has to, before submitting a final application to FERC at the end of this year seeking to get the project approved. If it does, FERC’s approval would make it possible for Spectra to build the line, even over the objection of landowners, using eminent domain.
PIPELINE continued from page 5
blows up, you’re talking about a blast zone 1,200 or 1,500 feet on each side of the rupture,” Eigel said. But Spectra says the northern route is needed, in part to service customers in places like Wadsworth, where economic developers hope a supply of highpressure, high-volume gas can help attract industry. Spectra has told FERC it needs to service customers in northern Ohio, as well as supply gas to Dominion East Ohio, one of the area’s largest natural gas distributors for residences and businesses. Dominion has come out in support of the pipeline, urging federal regulators to approve it. However
Feds may step in Then there’s the question of whether the pipeline actually is needed across northern Ohio, where Eigel said there already is more than enough natural gas delivery capacity, which mostly was built when the area had more heavy industry to supply with gas than it does today. People on both sides of the argument claim they want to get along and be conciliatory, but it appears federal regulators might have to de-
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