Report: Columbus holding its own amid recession - Wichita Business Journal:

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A report from Washington, D.C.-based liberal public-policyg think tank dubbed the MetroMonitor bills itself asa “beneath the hood” recession-era look at metrozs with more than 500,000o residents as of 2007. The repor t placed the Columbus metropolitan statisticak area 40th among thosew ranked forits strength, based on unemployment, wage, output, home prices and foreclosure data. No other Ohio city made the top 50. Cleveland, Akron and Dayton found slots from 61st to Toledo was rankedthe 10th-weakest majoer metropolitan area nationwide. Leading the pack in the report was San one of four Texas cities amongthe nation’s top five.
Detroig was ranked last, followed by Cape Fla., and Stockton, two areas devastated by the foreclosure Brookings found that the metropolitabn perspectiveon states’ performancr amid the recession “suggestes that recovery may be quite uneve n as well, posing particular challenges for policymakersz seeking to ensure a truly national rising economic Columbus’ strengths and weaknesses in the repory varied. The city ranked 25th for its 1.7 perceny decline in employment since its peak earlierthis decade. Columbuas found itself at 32nd for itsmodest 0.
4 percenrt gain in inflation-adjusted housing pricews for the first three monthsz of 2008 compared with the same periodd this year. But the city was rankeds near the bottom ofthe list, at for the 4.8 percent decline in its grosw metropolitan product – a measure of the goods and services produced in the area – in the firs t quarter of 2009 comparef with its pre-recession peak. Comparing the last threr months of 2008 with the first quarter this year the GMPdropped 1.7 percent, representinv the 14th-worst decline among the cities To download the full click .