Report: Glimmer of hope for area

By GRACE WYLER

gwyler@vindy.com

youngstown

Although the city’s economic performance remains one of the worst among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, Youngstown has shown signs of economic recovery last quarter, posting the largest gain in manufacturing employment in the country.

Youngstown’s manufacturing employment jumped by 8.9 percent in the second quarter of 2010, the nation’s largest gain in that sector, according to a report released by the Brookings Institution this week. The report, which tracks the economic recession and recovery in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas, showed that the Youngstown area also saw one of the nation’s sharpest declines in unemployment between June 2009 and June 2010. The jobless rate in the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman metro area dropped 1.6 percentage point in that period.

The Youngstown metro area, which includes all of Mahoning and Trumbull counties and Mercer County in Pennsylvania, posted the fourth- steepest drop in unemployment over the year, after Detroit, Toledo and Minneapolis.

Overall, the report showed Youngstown’s economic recovery was among the nation’s weakest in the second quarter of 2010, ranking among the bottom 25 for several economic indicators including employment, the housing market, foreclosures and output growth.

The area’s increase in manufacturing employment is a positive sign, but recovery remains uncertain, said Brookings fellow Howard Wial, one of the authors of the study.

The uptick in manufacturing is an opportunity for the Youngstown area going forward, said Walt Good, vice president for economic development for the Youngstown/ Warren Regional Chamber.