Columbus and Central Ohio Employment Forecast for 2014

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Columbus and Central Ohio can expect job growth far above the average in Ohio and above the national average.   The region is expected to add 18,200 jobs this year, which is a gain of 1.9 percent according to Bill LaFayette, owner of the Regionomics consulting firm.   He also says that this is his strongest forecast in 15 years.

“This is actually the largest growth rate that I’ve ever predicted in 15 years,” he said in a question-and-answer session after his presentation. “Although if you want the honest, unvarnished truth, I should have been a whole lot more optimistic a couple years ago.”

“We made back all the jobs we lost in the recession in March 2012. As of November, we were 16,000 jobs to the good.”

“We have been doing much better than average in central Ohio through both the recession and the recovery,” LaFayette told the crowd at Columbus Metropolitan Club yesterday at his annual Blue Chip Economic Forecast.

For 2013 he predicted gains 13,500 new jobs, which is 1.3 percent growth and once all the revisions to the numbers are in this will likely prove to be conservative.

Columbus and Central Ohio have done much better than the state and the nation.   The country has regained about 85 percent of the jobs lost during the recession and Ohio about 50 percent.

This is essential to a vibrant Columbus commercial real estate for sale or lease market.

Bill concluded that the state and Columbus and Central Ohio need to do a lot better at small business formation.