FORBES ASSESSMENT Valley ranks near bottom out of 150 metro areas
Declining jobs and a low rate of higher education hold the Valley down.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Mahoning Valley remains nearly the worst place in the country to do business or build a career, a magazine says.
The Mahoning Valley ranks 149th out of the top 150 metropolitan areas, according to a ranking released Tuesday by Forbes, a leading business publication. The only area ranked lower was Flint, Mich.
"It's disappointing that we're ranked so lowly," said Jeff Chagnot, Youngstown's economic development director. "But we're doing our best to diversify and provide opportunities for our young people."
The key to turning around the area is keeping young people in town, he said. The area needs to create jobs to do that, however.
Population decline
Forbes said the Valley ranks 142nd in the percentage of people leaving the area. On average over the past five years, this area is losing 0.5 percent of its population each year, while the average for all metropolitan areas is a 0.4 percent gain.
Chagnot said the Valley still is trying to recover from the loss of the steel mills in the 1970s and 1980s.
"It's difficult when you are attempting to rebuild an entire economy," he said.
This area, like all of Northeast Ohio, was built on heavy manufacturing, but those jobs are going away, he said. Even companies such as General Motors and Delphi Corp. that have made huge investments in local plants are cutting back on workers because of increased automation.
Employment opportunities
Forbes said the Valley ranked 148th in job growth, its worst ranking in any category. It has lost an average of 1 percent of its jobs a year over the past five years, compared with a gain of 1.2 percent nationally.
Chagnot said Youngstown has tried to combat this by turning former steel mill land into industrial parks, with financial incentives and free land for companies that locate there. The city's three industrial parks have 35 companies with a total of more than 3,000 employees.
He pointed to Exal, which makes cans in the Performance Place Industrial Park off Poland Avenue. The company recently expanded with highly advanced aluminum extrusion equipment. The expansion was to add 33 jobs to the 124 jobs at the plant.
Education score
The Valley also ranked low in educational attainment. The magazine said 15 percent of the population here has a bachelor's degree or higher, which ranked 141st nationally.
Chagnot said the educational level of the Valley has been low because of its past abundance of manufacturing jobs that didn't require degrees.
"We're naturally playing catch-up in educational attainment," he said.
Other categories that were used in the ranking for the Valley were: advanced degrees, 119th; cost of doing business, 95th; housing affordability, 11th; and income growth, 97th.
The top five areas were Austin, Texas; Boise, Idaho; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Atlanta; and Madison, Wis.
Last year, the Valley ranked 199th out of the 200 areas that were ranked.
shilling@vindy.com