“I would attribute this to a consistent retention strategy with our existing employers and then attraction strategy that we’ve had for the better part of a decade,” said Horton Hobbs, vice president of economic development for the Greater Springfield Partnership. “It’s been paying dividends and it continued to pay dividends even during COVID. We had job creation when a lot of communities didn’t.”
Hobbs said Springfield has seen a lot of new business growth, too, which has boosted employment rates. He said this data encourages Springfield’s strategy of diversifying its economy over the last two decades.
Hobbs pointed to different types of manufacturing, as well as gains in the insurance industry. There have also been numerous small businesses making a go in the Springfield market.
Employment in large metro areas in the U.S. since the pandemic has grown by 3.7%, according to Federal Reserve data. Employment in small U.S. metro areas has recovered just a touch more slowly, at 3.3%.
Springfield is classified as a small metro area in the report (population in the 50,000-499,999 range), as the city population was just shy of 60,000 in the most recent Census, while Clark County’s was about 135,000.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
According to the data, overall employment in the U.S. has recovered from the COVID-induced recession and now exceeds pre-pandemic levels.
Springfield outpaced Dayton, Kettering and Beavercreek in the report, having the strongest employment gain of any Dayton-area community.
Columbus saw the most significant growth in Ohio, at 3.7%, and Hobbs said Springfield would like to be at that level. He said Springfield has benefitted from Columbus' growth because of its proximity.
This proximity has brought several businesses to Springfield, in part because they can take advantage of the Columbus market, too.
Hobbs said the city is still making gains in population, and expects to see some long-term results from the Consider Clark County Campaign that urges residents to also work in the county.
The area has seen a large growth in its immigrant population over the last several years, with an estimated 12-15,000 Haitian immigrants now residing here, although data shows that the majority are not working in Clark County, Hobbs said.
“We’re just not seeing those numbers from our employers that would suggest that the majority of the Haitian community is working in Clark County,” Hobbs said. “I think they’re working by and large in surrounding counties.”
Data for the Federal Reserve study came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.
Over the entire region included in the report (Ohio and parts of Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania), the highest employment growth percentage was in Lexington, Kentucky, at 5.5%, while the biggest declines were in Pittsburgh (-2.1%) and Wheeling, W.Va. (-1.8%).
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