ACE

ACE Report: Northeast Ohio job growth paces ahead of state

Posted on by katiecmorgan

The increase in the number of people employed in Northeast Ohio between April and May — 4,543 jobs — was greater than the employment growth between April 2015 and April 2016, when the region added 3,780 jobs, as tracked by the Ahola Crain’s Employment (ACE) Report.

The accelerating growth in May, an increase of 0.39% in the regional workforce, might not be a one-month blip.

Jack Kleinhenz, the Cleveland Heights economist who created the ACE Report model, said that it “portends an acceleration in regional economic activity.”

Kleinhenz’s analysis showed that the employment growth came, in raw numbers, more from the service sector than the manufacturing sector, since 80% of the region’s jobs are classified as service.

But on a percentage basis, more were created in the goods-producing sector. The region added 3,538 service jobs, a 0.37% increase, and 1,006 goods-producing, or manufacturing jobs, a 0.47% increase.

Strong growth in new manufacturing orders and modest gains in production and exports, Kleinhenz said, helped account for the growth in goods-producing jobs.

Employment growth in Northeast Ohio, the seven-county Cleveland-Akron area, outperformed on a percentage basis the growth in employment statewide.

In Ohio, nonagricultural employment increased 9,200 in May over April, from 5,477,600 to 5,486,800, a 0.17% increase, according to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, compared with Northeast Ohio’s 0.39% increase.

The growth in jobs and the declining unemployment rate — metro Cleveland’s unemployment rate is down to 4.8%, while Akron’s is 4.7% — hides a concern among economists about the declining participation of so-called prime-age men — males ages 25 to 54 — in the workforce.

A study released earlier in June by the White House Council of Economic Advisors found that only 88% of the men in that key age group are either working or looking for work. That’s down dramatically from a peak of 98% in 1954.

The study concludes, not surprisingly, that the demand for the labor of lower-skilled men is an important factor in the decline and reflects changing technology and automation and the globalization of the U.S. economy.

This decline in the prime-age male labor force participation rate, the study found, is particularly troubling since workers at this age are at their most productive.

“(B)ecause of this, the long-run decline has outsized implications for individual well-being as well as for broader economic growth,” the study found. “A large body of evidence has linked joblessness to worse economic prospects in the future, lower overall well-being and happiness, and higher mortality, as well as negative consequences for families and communities.”

The economic advisers recommend increasing investment in public infrastructure, creating construction jobs, would help boost prime-age male labor force participation. It also suggests reforming community colleges and other job-training systems.

Seaonally adjusted

Month Non-Farm Small (1-49) Mid-Sized (50+) Goods-producing Service Producing
Dec (actual) 1,169,198 475,677   693,522 216,446 952,753
Jan (est.) 1,165,273 474,139   691,134 214,872 950,402
Feb (est.) 1,166,961 474,881   692,080 214,395 952,567
Mar (est.) 1,167,019 474,892   692,127 214,583 952,437
Apr (est.) 1,168,968 475,679   693,289 215,034 953,934
May (est.) 1,173,511 477,516   695,996 216,040 957,471
Recent Month’s Estimated Change
Apr ’16 to May ’16 4,543  1,836.96   2,706 1,006 3,538
Diff from May 2015 5,946  2,617   3,329 (1,736) 7,682
Trend
3-month 1,169,833  476,029   693,804 215,219 954,614
6-month 1,168,489  475,464   693,025 215,228 953,260

By

ACE Report: April job numbers spring forward

Posted on by katiecmorgan

Northeast Ohio gained 1,874 private-sector jobs in April, part of an uptick in the regional labor market that has seen employment grow by an estimated 3,431 jobs over the last 12 months, as tracked by the Ahola Crain’s Employment Report.

Jack Kleinhenz, the Cleveland Heights economist who created the ACE Report model, said the seasonally adjusted employment numbers suggest some optimism about a rebound in manufacturing employment, which has suffered in recent months.

The 0.12% increase in private-sector employment seen in the ACE analysis is comparable to an increase in the April ADP National Employment Report, which saw a modest increase nationally of 156,000 jobs from March to April. However, manufacturing employment declined nationally, according to the ADP report, while Northeast Ohio manufacturing employment in the seven county Cleveland-Akron area grew by 0.36%.

Longer term, according to the ACE analysis, manufacturing employment gained 1,580 jobs since April 2015, a 0.66% gain. Kleinhenz is optimistic that trend will continue.

“Manufacturing has been in a significant swoon that dates back to late 2014,” he said. “However, based on this month’s estimates, manufacturing employment is headed for at least a temporary improvement in the months ahead.”

Both the ACE and ADP data are derived from payroll data of client companies served, nationally by ADP LLC and regionally by The Ahola Corp., a Brecksville payroll and human services firm.

The economists at PNC Financial Services Group Inc., report in their second-quarter Northeast Ohio Market Outlook that manufacturing employment in its Northeast Ohio service area, which includes the Canton and Youngstown metropolitan areas in addition to Cleveland and Akron, would have been stronger had it not been for layoffs in metals production and the energy industry.

Those layoffs were due to competition from steel imports and the sharp decline in energy prices, which has reduced investment in oil and gas drilling in the region.

Looking back to before the recession, however, is a reminder that the region has shed thousands of jobs.

According to data compiled by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, the Cleveland and Akron metros have lost 62,400 jobs since employment peaked in 2006, before the recession.

The state agency’s data shows that regional employment averaged 1,398,600 during 2006 but has dropped, as of April, to 1,336,200.

Broken down, the Cleveland area has lost 47,000 workers since 2006, while Akron has lost 18,400 jobs.

ACE REPORT
Month Non-Farm Small (1-49) Mid-Sized (50+) Goods-producing Service Producing
Sept (Actual) 1,164,804    473,914  690,890 215,278 949,526
Oct (est.) 1,164,798    473,762  691,036 217,419 947,379
Nov (est.) 1,161,764    472,667  689,097 214,861 946,903
Dec (est.) 1,164,131    473,645  690,486 215,080 949,051
Jan (est.) 1,163,766    473,498  690,268 214,997 948,769
Feb (est.) 1,165,793    474,378  691,415 214,576 951,217
Mar (est.) 1,165,950    474,430  691,519 214,767 951,183
Apr (est.) 1,167,824    475,197  692,628 215,062 952,762

May 27, 2016

By Jay Miller

ACE Report: Energy slowdown leads to a down March in region

Posted on by katiecmorgan

By Jay Miller

Continuing its roller-coaster ride, Northeast Ohio lost 375 jobs in March, according to the latest Ahola Crain’s Employment (ACE) Report. The March loss was preceded by a February increase, which was preceded by a January loss and a December increase.

The longer, year-over-year gain, however, is positive, with Northeast Ohio employment up 3,316 jobs, a gain of 0.29%.

“The regional economy is expanding and is in better shape than many expected (given the) uncertainty caused by the volatile financial markets that disrupted economic activity earlier this year,” said economist Jack Kleinhenz, who compiles the ACE data, referring to stock market ups and downs that followed the price of oil.

Employment growth came entirely from the service sector, with employment in that sector growing by 6,397 jobs, a 0.7% increase. That was offset by a loss of 3,081, or 1.5%, in the smaller industrial sector.

Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, explained the weakness in industrial sector employment in an April 1 speech to the New York Association for Business Economics after noting that the slowdown in the energy sector was affecting employment in northern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

“Regional firms with international exposure, such as steel producers, also continue to struggle in the wake of dollar appreciation and lower commodity prices that reflect weak global demand,” she said.

“While manufacturers with ties to energy and steel production have faced challenges, the weakness in that segment has been offset by production increases at manufacturers supplying the construction industry and by the auto industry.”

The ACE Report surveys only Cuyahoga County and the six counties that surround it, while the Fed’s Cleveland-based Fourth District comprises Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

Michael Teshome, an economist who covers the Midwest for PNC Financial Services Group, agrees with Mester but also sees a future of employment growth in other sectors.

“Layoffs in the steel industry will restrain employment growth in manufacturing,” he wrote. “Health care, finance and professional services will add to the area’s economic growth.”

PNC forecasts employment growth in Northeast Ohio at 1% for 2016 and 1.1% for 2017. Longer term, PNC’s economist sees opportunity for greater growth.

“Though still only in their early development stages, manufacturing hubs for the machinery of new energy technologies and transportation equipment hold great promise for those regions that can attract and cultivate them,” Teshome wrote.

“The (Northeast Ohio) region’s lower costs and availability of underutilized assets will be an important tool in attracting new industries and opportunities into the region in the years ahead.”

Month Non-Farm Small (1-49) Mid-Sized (50+) Goods-producing Service Producing
September (Actual) 1,164,804   473,914    690,890   215,278 949,526
Oct (est.) 1,165,339   473,967    691,371   217,727 947,611
Nov (est.) 1,162,090   472,798    689,292   214,944 947,146
Dec (est.) 1,164,636   473,839    690,797   215,335 949,301
Jan (est.) 1,164,051   473,610    690,441   215,102 948,949
Feb (est.) 1,165,721   474,355    691,366   214,476 951,246
Mar (est.) 1,165,346   474,200    691,147   214,441 950,905
Recent Month’s Estimated Change
Feb ’16 to Mar ’16    (375)   (154.98)    (220)    (34)    (341)
Diff from Mar 2015    3,316   1,607    1,709    (3,082)    6,397
Trend
3-month    1,165,040    474,055    690,985    214,673    950,366
6-month    1,164,531    473,795    690,736    215,338    949,193

ACE Report: Region loses 650 jobs in January, but year-over-year employment is up slightly

Posted on by katiecmorgan

Employment in Northeast Ohio took a slight dip in January, with a loss of 650 jobs from December to January. That represents a loss of 0.06% of the region’s jobs, according to the Ahola Crain’s Employment (ACE) Report, with the number employed dropping to 1.16 million.

That January number, however, is a gain of 1,244 jobs, or 0.11%, from the number of people employed in the region in January 2015.

There is usually a falloff of employment in the early months of the year, said Jack Kleinhenz, the Cleveland Heights economist who compiles the ACE data.

Still, Kleinhenz sees regional employment on an upward trajectory.

“The employment data is consistent with an economy that downshifted during the month” of January, he reported. “The rate of improvement in labor market conditions remains erratic for both the nation and the region, but the labor market continues to move in the right direction.”

But where Northeast Ohio saw an actual drop in employment, Ohio and the nation saw only a decline in the pace of job growth. Nationally, the growth in payrolls was 151,000 for the month, according to U.S. Department of Labor estimates. That was below expectations since 262,000 jobs were created in December.

Similarly, job growth in Ohio was off slightly. The state saw growth of 7,888 jobs between November and December, according to data compiled by ADP, a national payroll firm, but only a gain of 6,837 between December and January, an increase of 0.15%.

Longer term, a report released in late January by the Brookings Institution showed that job growth in Northeast Ohio — it divides the region into Akron and Cleveland-Elyria metropolitan areas — has languished for a decade. Brookings is a Washington, D.C., think tank.

The organization publishes a periodic “Metro Monitor” that tracks growth, prosperity and inclusion in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. The report calls the recovery from the 2007-2009 recession as “slow and uneven,” with growth strongest along the West Coast, the Intermountain West and Texas and weak in the Sun Belt.

“The manufacturing economies of the eastern Great Lakes, like those in Northeast Ohio or Upstate New York, also saw weak recoveries,” the report stated.

Using data from Moody’s Analytics, Brookings puts employment growth in the two Northeast Ohio metros among the lowest third of the 100 metropolitan areas in the country. The report shows that employment in the Akron metro has been flat for the decade ending in 2014.

For the last five years, since the recession, Akron saw employment growth of 3.5%. For the last year, employment grew by and 1.5%, according to Brookings’ analysis.

In the Cleveland-Elyria metro, employment still is below a decade ago, by 3.3%, though it has picked up since the recession, with 3.6% growth for the last five years.

Brookings reports no employment growth in the Cleveland metro for 2014, the last year in the survey.<br

Seasonally Adjusted Data

Month Non-Farm  Small      (1-49)   Mid-Sized (50+)   Goods-producing   Service Producing
June(Actual) 1,163,941   473,458    690,483   216,623  947,318
July(est.) 1,157,861   470,937    686,924   216,173  941,688
Aug(est.) 1,158,709   471,291    687,418   216,196  942,513
Sept(est.) 1,159,375   471,571    687,805   216,203  943,172
Oct(est) 1,162,009   472,658    689,351   216,462  945,547
Nov(est.) 1,161,126   472,402    688,724   214,819  946,307
Dec(est.) 1,163,443   473,357    690,086   215,071  948,372
Jan(est.) 1,162,791   473,090    689,701   214,971  947,820
 

 
Recent Month’s Estimated Change
Dec ’15 to Jan ’16 (652)  (267)  (385)  (99)  (553)
Diff fromJan 2015 1,244  733  512  (3,014)  4,259
 

 
Trend
3-month 1,162,453  472,950  689,504  214,954  947,500
945,622 945,622  945,622  945,622  945,622  945,622

By Jay Miller

February 26, 2016

ACE Report: Northeast Ohio Has First Job Drop Since July

Posted on by katiecmorgan
December 30, 2015
By

Employment in the seven-county Cleveland-Akron metropolitan area is being projected to dip ever-so-slightly in November. The estimated decline — 1,400 jobs or 0.1% of the employment in an economy of nearly 1.2 million jobs — reflects an annual slowdown in the manufacturing, or goods-producing, sector, according to the latest Ahola Crain’s Employment (ACE) Report.

The decline is the first drop since July and reflects an estimated increase of 834 jobs in service employment that is offset by a loss of 2,233 jobs in goods-related businesses.

Year-over-year, though, employment is up, according to the ACE numbers, with a modest gain of 5,427 since November 2014, a 0.58% seasonally adjusted increase.

“The region in recent history registers softer employment gains for the goods-related sector, typically in the later months of the year, and we are not overly concerned about the contractionary reading (for November) as the region remains in expansion territory,” said economist Jack Kleinhenz, who compiles the ACE data.

“The recent trend of performance is indicating further economic activity and job growth, but perhaps at a slower pace,” Kleinhenz said.

The regional economy continues to lag the national economy. Private employment nationally rose by 2.1% over the last 12 months, according to current employment data compiled by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The two sub-metro areas in the region are performing similarly, though Cleveland is doing narrowly better than the Akron metropolitan area.

Estimates by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services (ODJFS), which analyzes the BLS data, found that the number of people employed grew by 0.018% over the last year in its Akron metro area, which includes Portage and Summit counties. Employment in the five-county Cleveland metro grew 0.019% from November 2014 to November 2015. The ACE estimates cover only private sector employment; the BLS data include all non-farm employment, including the government workforce.

Similarly, unemployment for the Cleveland metro was 3.7%, according to ODJFS, down from 5% in November 2104, while the two-county Akron metro had an unemployment rate of 4.6%, down from 5.3% a year ago.

Regional employment is expected to continue to grow, though slowly. Economists at PNC Financial Services Group, parent of PNC Bank, found optimism in October when the company surveyed small and middle market business owners in Ohio.

Because of optimism about the outlook for their own businesses and for the local economy, 19% of business owners surveyed said they planned to hire in the months ahead, compared with only 10% who had plans to hire six months earlier.

In addition, 36% of those employers — PNC did not disclose the size of its sample — said they expected to increase employees’ pay, up from 26% who were planning pay raises in the spring. Of those planning raises, 59% said they planned to give raises of 3% or more during the next six months.

Seasonally Adjusted Data

Month Non-Farm Small (1-49) Mid-Sized (50+) Goods-producing Service Producing
June (actual) 1,161,467 472,360 689,108 217,477 943,991
July (est.) 1,159,789 471,691 688,097 216,957 942,831
Aug (est.) 1,161,200 472,304 688,896 216,667 944,533
Sept (est.) 1,162,105 472,702 689,403 216,408 945,697
Oct (est) 1,164,808 473,822 690,986 216,617 948,190
Nov (est) 1,163,408 473,390 690,018 214,384 949,024
Recent Month’s Estimated Change
Oct ’15 to Nov ’15 (1,400) (431.7) (968) (2,233) 834
Diff from Nov 2014 5,427 2,430 2,997 (2,174) 7,601
Trend
3-Month 1,163,440 473,305 690,136 215,803 947,637
6-Month 1,162,129 472,712 689,418 216,418 945,711

Crain’s Cleveland Business