CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland metro area’s unemployment rate is the lowest in the state and better than in most urban areas of similar size regionally.
But while that generally signals good news, the head of the region’s chamber of commerce says it also is a sign that Greater Cleveland has untapped potential.
Too many jobs are going unfilled, Baiju Shah, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said ahead of Monday’s release of the agency’s annual scorecard for economic growth.
The report scores the Cleveland area versus 10 peer metro areas from Rochester, New York, and to as far south as Louisville. This year’s Midwest Growth Rankings shows improvement in two of three core measures.
“Businesses are growing faster here than other geographies. Income is growing faster,” Shah said. “Jobs is the one area where we have the challenge. It’s not because of the lack of jobs. We need more people to support the jobs we have.”
He said that means doing better at attracting “young people and mid-career individuals to our community.” Shah said the health, business and finance, construction and logistics segments are among the fastest growing opportunities regionally.
Part of the attraction effort is being led by a consortium of public, private and nonprofit organizations known as the Cleveland Talent Alliance, which recently reported a retention rate of 51% of the college graduates regionally in 2024, up from 47% when tracking began in 2020. Shah said the goal is 55%.
“We think we can get there,” Shah said. As evidence, he pointed to the listing on the state’s Ohio Means Jobs website of 36,000 openings within 50 miles, and the long-running trend of the local unemployment rate being lower than most other metros regionally.
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for December, places the unemployment rate at 3.4% for the metro area consisting of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain and Medina counties. This compares to 3.6% in Cincinnati and Columbus, 4.1% in Dayton, 4.3% in Akron and 4.6% in Toledo.
Among the areas the Greater Cleveland Partnership considers peers, the unemployment rates are lower in Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee and Rochester, and higher in Buffalo, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Pittsburgh and St. Louis.
Cleveland metro’s unemployment rate of 3.4% in December versus 10 of what are consider peer areas regionally.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
The report used data through 2024, because complete 2025 information is not yet available. Among these 11 areas:
- Cleveland ranked fourth for business growth from 2023 to 2024 based on a metro area-level version of the Gross Domestic Product. It was up 2%, topped only by Columbus (2.6%), Rochester (2.8%) and Indianapolis (3.5%).
- Cleveland ranked third for income growth, with per capita income up 4.7% to $70,558. The two scoring better for growth were Rochester (up 4.9% to $65,468) and Indianapolis (up 4.9% to $76,564).
- Cleveland ranked sixth for jobs growth, with a 0.4% increase to 1.1 million non-farm employees. The fastest growing area was Indianapolis (2.3%), while Pittsburgh (minus 1.4%) and Rochester (minus 0.7%) lost jobs.
In comparison to an earlier report examining 2019-21 data, Cleveland improved from sixth for business growth and eighth for income growth, but fell from what was a fifth-place ranking for jobs growth.
The Midwest Growth Rankings, first introduced in 2022, were designed to offer clarity to the progress being made, or not made, in the region.
“Our aspiration remains for Cleveland to be in the top tier of its peers for the decade in all three indicators,” Shah said. “Getting there requires maintaining a strong business environment, a civic system working All In for greater growth and prosperity, and all of us becoming ambassadors for our world-class region as a place to work, live, invest and grow.”
