Nearly five years ago, Ohio started down the path of privatizing its economic development efforts and structure. Actually, it would be more accurate to say economic development in Ohio now is more of a partnership between the state and its six local/regional partners: Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth, Columbus 2020, Dayton Development Coalition, REDI Cincinnati, Regional Growth Partnership (Toledo) and Team NEO (Northeast Ohio).
After a slow beginning in 2011, JobsOhio is starting to show dramatically robust job creation and capital investment results for many areas across the state. In 2015, JobsOhio obtained commitments on 330 Ohio projects of 23,602 new jobs with $1.1 billion in payroll and $6.7 billion in longer-term capital investment for Ohio’s economy. Of the new job commitments, 41 percent came from companies new to Ohio, while the remaining 59 percent came from existing Ohio companies. In addition, 68 percent ($4.5 billion) of the $6.7 billion in new capital investment came from companies new to Ohio, with sizeable investments in advanced manufacturing, automotive, shale energy/petrochemical and information technology.
Large corporations are significantly responsible for driving the job creation and capital investment numbers, but the near-term and anticipated future job growth will largely come from small and medium-sized businesses. This is to be expected since smaller companies will want to be part of the supplier networks and distribution chains of these larger companies as the projects proceed and that development will provide employment and tax base expansion opportunities for communities near these new projects.
The Ohio Chamber strongly supported the legislation creating JobsOhio as a way to retool the way our state does economic development and unite the strengths of each of our regions into a successful collective outreach to both new and existing businesses. JobsOhio’s 2015 Annual Report provides substantive evidence that its collaborative approach and emphasis on our industry strengths is bearing fruit for Ohio’s citizens and its economic future.