Northeast Ohio tops country in headquarters growth

Staff report

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The economic- development organization Team Northeast Ohio has released a second-quarter report showing that the 18-county region is fourth in the nation among the Top 20 markets in terms of headquarters-employment share.

Team NEO’s report said that Northeast Ohio is home to more than 500 headquarters, which are significant contributors to the region’s employment and economy. Headquarters’ employment has climbed from 19,000 in 1990, the report said, to nearly 49,000 in 2013.

That’s 160 percent employment growth for the segment, compared with a 22 percent average growth rate in U.S. headquarters’ employment.

The report also showed that employment in the region is up 40,000 from the first quarter of this year and 3,000 jobs year-over-year.

Team NEO also said Northeast Ohio’s unemployment rate of 7.1 percent is lower than the national rate of 7.4 percent.

Some of the report’s results differ from one released last week by PNC Bank that said economic growth across Northeast Ohio was tempered by federal spending cuts, tax increases and weak income growth. The PNC report said growth heading into the third and fourth quarters will remain modest at best.

Team NEO found that the services sector in Northeast Ohio gained 5,000 jobs year-over-year and construction in the region grew by 8 percent in the same time, averaging 63,500 workers.

However, the organization reported that growth in both the manufacturing and government sectors declined slightly.