011712 Outlook: Economic development outlook bright for Wayne County

  • By Sharon Haught
  • January 18, 2012
  • 286
                        
By any measurement, the past four years have been difficult ones from an economic standpoint. While the economy has not recovered as quickly or robustly as anyone had hoped, there are solid indications that Wayne County’s economy is making some impressive gains. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in November Wayne County’s unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent, which represents a point and a half drop verses the November, 2010 rate of 8.4 percent. While 6.7 percent is nowhere near Wayne County’s five percent unemployment rate of the early 2000’s, it’s also a far cry from its peak of 11.1 percent in January of 2010. Wayne County employers are hiring in a big way as evidenced by the fact that 1000 workers are once again drawing paychecks that weren’t doing so a year ago at this time. That means businesses of all types and sizes are growing despite the sluggish economy. According to Wayne Economic Development Council President Rod Crider in 2011, 26 companies collectively made nearly $98.5 million in capital investments in Wayne County which helped to attract or retain 683 employees. The county’s success at attracting and retaining jobs has brought national and even international attention. For the fifth straight year, Wayne County was ranked among the top six micropolitans in the United States by the influential Site Selection Magazine. The county also led all micropolitan areas in the Midwest and the State of Ohio in business expansion and attraction. In its first ever ranking of micropolitans located in North and South America, fDi Magazine – an affiliate of the Financial Times of London – also ranked the area as one of the top ten micropolitans in the prominent organization’s American Cities of the Future awards. The Wooster/Wayne County area made the top ten in two separate categories. In the cost effectiveness category, Wooster was the only city in the United States to crack the top ten. Wooster was also the only Midwestern city to reach the top ten in the business friendliness category. Awards like these are recognition that the Wayne Economic Development’s three pronged strategy of growing existing businesses, attracting new businesses to the area and nurturing home grown start ups in the county’s diverse areas of strategic focus - agbioscience, R&D, information technology and advanced manufacturing – is working. The keys to attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments and maintaining an unemployment rate nearly two points lower than the State of Ohio’s 8.5 percent rate and the national average of 8.6 percent lies in the diversity of the local economy, the strength of its businesses and its vision for the future. From Smucker’s acquisition of Folgers to the major expansions at Seaman Corporation and Venture Products, local companies made significant strategic investments in Wayne County in 2011. In 2012 the county’s already successful agbioscience industry will get a major boost when the BioHio hires its first executive director and begins the process of fully developing a research park which leverages the scientific research capabilities of OARDC to bring products to market and grow new businesses.


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