Northeast Ohio -- What's Not to Like?

We learned this week that the Northeast Ohio unemployment rate was a modest 7.6%. For those who talk ill of the area, please know that we are doing substantially better than 90% of the country. Not to mention our first-place baseball team and fortunate ping-pong ball bounces in the NBA Draft lottery.

 

I have been preaching about Ohio, and specifically Northeast Ohio, for a long time about how our unemployment isn't as bad as everyone would think.

Remember, we lost 400,000 manufacturing jobs BEFORE this crisis started, so we already had taken a big hit beforehand. That may be a part of it. Also, construction was a big leader in job losses, and as we all know, construction wasn't booming as much in Ohio as other parts of the country. It isn't a coincidence that the highest unemployment rates are in construction states like California, Nevada and Florida.