High-tech support; Northeast Ohio's economy, despite setbacks, is tied to growth in the high-tech sector. That means investing in higher education
The economic transformation of Northeast Ohio remains a work in progress. The encouraging fact is, a new report on high-tech jobs in the region offers far more good news than bad for the long run. The report, prepared by Cleveland State University for the economic development group NorTech, thus can serve as a reliable guide in setting regional priorities for the future.
In several key respects, trends from 2000 to 2005 in the 21-county region were positive, despite an overall loss of high-tech jobs, down about 13 percent to 160,819.
Among the encouraging findings in the first such report in the region: an increase in total output in the high-tech sector, high productivity and high wages. Overall the job losses must be considered in the context of the difficult economic climate in the earlier part of the study period, after 9/11.
Total output was up 7.5 percent in the high-tech sector, to $20.8 billion, with productivity per employee 52 percent higher than the average for all industries. The average annual wage for a high-tech job in areas such as biomedical manufacturing and computer design? About $62,000, or 72 percent higher than the average for all industries.
The report also clearly indicates Akron's role as a regional leader in economic development. Among the six metropolitan areas in the region, only Akron and Sandusky added high-tech employment. Akron's increase was small, about 2 percent, compared to Sandusky's 7 percent. But the Akron area had the highest concentration of high-tech jobs in the region, about 11 percent. By comparison, about 9 percent of all jobs in the Cleveland area were high-tech -- roughly the same percentage as nationally.
Thursday brought more good news. Mayor Don Plusquellic's effort to create a biomedical corridor began to pay off with the announcement that a maker of synthetic bone substitutes will relocate here from New Jersey, bringing an initial half-dozen jobs.
Against a backdrop of chronic state underfunding for higher education, the report also confirms the crucial role higher education plays in coping with economic change. The Akron area had an upsurge of more than 300 percent in industry funding for research and development from 1993 to 2003, attributed largely to the presence of the University of Akron, Kent State University and the Northeast Ohio Universities College of Medicine.
The pathways mapped out by the NorTech report reinforce the basic direction the region (and state) must take, making the strategic investments in education, university-based research and infrastructure that end up creating high-skill, high-paying jobs.
The way is not always easy, as the report's employment numbers show. But if growth, and income growth (which produces higher tax revenues from existing rates) are the necessary objectives, the only feasible option is for Northeast Ohio to continue 0to embrace a high-tech economy.