Maybe you missed it earlier this week, but chances are you didn’t—Site Selection magazine’s rankings went viral because Ohio and many Ohio metro areas made it into various top ten lists. Ohio continues to grow stronger economically with national recognition, especially where shale is concerned. The Youngstown-Warren Metro Area has been recognized twice in the last five years for something that would have been unheard of in the previous 30 years. Youngstown-Warren made Site Selection’s Top Ten list for metro areas with populations of 200,000-1 million, ranking eighth with 22 new and expanded facilities in 2013.

Tony Paglia, Vice President of Government and Media Affairs at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, attributes this outstanding growth to shale. “Much of Youngstown-Warren’s economic success has been because of growth of the oil and gas supply chain industries in the Mahoning Valley and the resultant resurgence of manufacturing. Shale development has resulted in the creation of about 4,000 direct and indirect jobs and more than $5 billion in investments in the Mahoning Valley region,” Paglia said.

This achievement comes into sharper focus against the economic history of the area. Before the mid-2000s, the metro area, rocked hard by the demise of the U.S. steel industry in the 1970s and 1980s, was generally in the bottom 10 in the country for economic development projects.

It’s clear that the state of Ohio stands to experience great economic growth, attracting new businesses and opportunities, from Utica Shale. Like the Ohio University shale report, this is more evidence of shale’s ability to drive job growth and business development, and positively impact our state. Congratulations to the Youngstown-Warren metro area and their well-deserved ranking in Site Selection’s Top Ten List.