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Ohio middle market in better shape than the national middle market
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
A report recently released shows Ohio middle-market businesses are more confident in the economy than their national peers.
But a local bank leader has noticed companies aren’t as confident as they have been in recent years after the recession.
“I have mixed feelings on the economy,” said William Shivers, president for Huntington Bank in the Mahoning Valley and Akron/Canton regions.
Shivers is interested to see what happens in the economy after the presidential race.
A National Center for the Middle Market report shows Ohio middle-market businesses are more confident in the global, national and local economies than the national middle-market companies.
Ohio’s middle market shows diversity with middle-market businesses involved in construction, finance and insurance, professional services and manufacturing.
The report also shows Ohio’s middle-market revenue and employment growth is greater than the national growth.
Ohio’s middle-market businesses revenue grew 10.9 percent in the past 12 months, compared with 6.3 percent in the nation. In the next 12 months, middle-market companies in Ohio expect revenues to increase 9.1 percent, while national revenues are expected to grow by 4.6 percent.
Ohio middle-market employment saw a 6.4 percent increase in the past 12 months, compared with a 3.6 percent increase in the nation. Over the next 12 months, Ohio middle-market employment is expected to grow by 5.1 percent, compared with 2.7 percent nationally.
For the first quarter of 2016, the National Center for the Middle Market surveyed 1,000 chief executive officers, chief financial officers and other executives in middle-market businesses. Middle-market businesses have annual revenue ranging from $10 million to $1 billion. In the U.S., there are about 200,000 middle-market businesses.
Ohio has about 5,400 middle-market businesses that bring in more than $225 billion annually. Middle-market businesses represent 0.9 percent of all Ohio companies, employ 28 percent of the Ohio workforce and generate 19 percent of all Ohio business revenue, according to the report.
Locally, Shivers says the majority of businesses are small.
“You want to have an economy of new businesses being formed,” Shivers said. “You never know where they are going to end up.”
Earlier this week, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced that 9,306 new entities filed to do business in Ohio, an increase from 8,893 filings recorded in April 2015.
The Valley does have middle-market manufacturers, Shivers said.
“They are extremely impactful as well,” Shivers said. “When they do something, there’s a strong impact.”
George Zeller, a Cleveland-based economist, pointed out that the report does not mean Ohio is growing faster than the rest of the country. In fact, he says April was the 41st-consecutive month the state fell behind the national growth rate.
The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate, reported Friday, was 5.2 percent, up from 5.1 percent in March
“A lot of our established industries are still weak,” Zeller said.
On the other hand, George Mokrzan, director of economics at Huntington Bank, believes Ohio has done better than the nation in its recovery from the recession.