Business First of Columbus - 12:48 PM EDT Friday, August 24, 2007
An ongoing slump in the construction industry and a lagging information trade pulled the employment outlook down for the Columbus area in the second quarter of 2007, the ColumbusChamber reported Friday.
The organization said that while employment growth for the first half of the year is up slightly by 0.4 percent, the second quarter of 2007 saw a slight 0.1 percent decrease of about 300 workers. At the same time, employment nationwide grew 0.3 percent.
The biggest weaknesses of the Columbus area - measured by the chamber as Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union counties - were in the construction, retail, financial and transportation sectors. And while the local seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went from 4.2 percent at the end of the first quarter to 5 percent by June, the jump is because of more people looking for jobs, not cutbacks, Bill LaFayette, vice president of economic analysis for the chamber, said in a release.
Year-to-date employment in the Columbus area has grown 0.4 percent, behind the nationwide rate of 1.5 percent.
The information trade has seen the largest employment slide in the first half of the year, declining 2.4 percent, followed by the construction, retail and manufacturing industries.
The chamber said that while construction employment has risen 15 percent since January 2003 nationwide, local employment has dropped 5 percent in the same period.
The biggest buoy to Columbus-area employment was in the transportation trade, where employment grew 5.1 percent, follwed by professional and business servieces, leisure and hospitality and the wholesale trade.
Article At Colombus Buisiness Journal
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