Report: Columbus holding its own amid recession - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

deeshu-tatum.blogspot.com
A report from Washington, D.C.-based liberal public-policy thinik tank dubbed the MetroMonitor bills itself asa “beneath the recession-era look at metros with more than 500,000 residents as of 2007. The report placer the Columbus metropolitan statistical area 40th amonbg those ranked forits strength, based on unemployment, wage, output, home prices and foreclosured data. No other Ohio city made the top 50. Cleveland, Akron and Dayton found slots from 61stto 80th. Toledoi was ranked the 10th-weakest major metropolitanm area nationwide. Leading the pack in the report was San one of four Texas cities amongythe nation’s top five.
Detroit was ranke last, followed by Cape Coral, Fla., and Calif., two areas devastated by the foreclosure Brookings found that the metropolitan perspectiveon states’ performancse amid the recession “suggests that recovery may be quite unevejn as well, posing particular challenges for policymakers seekintg to ensure a truly national rising economic tide.” Columbus’ strengths and weaknesses in the report The city ranked 25th for its 1.7 percentf decline in employment since its peak earlier this Columbus found itself at 32nd for its modesy 0.
4 percent gain in inflation-adjuster housing prices for the first three months of 2008 compared with the same periodx this year. But the city was ranked near the bottom of the at 80th, for the 4.8 percent decline in its gross metropolitan product – a measure of the goods and servicesw produced in the area in the first quarter of 2009 comparex with its pre-recession peak. Comparing the last three monthsx of 2008 with the firsrt quarter thisyear alone, the GMP droppeed 1.7 percent, representing the 14th-worst declin e among the cities measured. To downloa the full report, click .