SALEM - A new report shows that Ohio has lost 223,892 jobs since 2000 as a result of the 2000 recession. That enormous job loss was 4.2 percent of all employment in Ohio, according to Cleveland-based economist George Zeller, a 1967 Salem High School graduate.

Zeller, who has tracked Ohio's economy for years, noted that July of 2008 was the 150th consecutive month when Ohio's job growth was slower than the country's national average, "albeit barely, since the United States has also lost jobs during all eight months of 2008."

His studies are based on adjusted-gross-income figures from Ohio state income-tax returns.

Zeller said that in high wage manufacturing jobs the damage was the worse.

Ohio has lost 234,027 manufacturing jobs just since 2001.

"That loss was 23.8 percent of the manufacturing jobs that Ohio had just seven years ago," he said, explaining, the average manufacturing job currently pays $52,429, while the average job in all other industries outside manufacturing currently generates earnings of $38,911 annually.

"The loss of nearly a quarter of all manufacturing jobs in Ohio has driven a deep and long lasting recession that has lasted far longer than other recent recessions," Zeller said.

The tri-county area has been particularly hard hit with Trumbull County suffering a 44 percent loss of manufacturing jobs since 2001 through the first quarter of 2008 while Columbiana County has lost 22.6 percent and Mahoning County has lost 15.6 percent.

The three counties combined show a 33.2 percent loss of manufacturing jobs compared to a statewide loss of 3.2 percent and national loss of 19.5 percent.

Columbiana County had 8,546 manufacturing jobs in the first quarter of 2001. That dropped to 6,613 for a net loss of 1,933 jobs by the first quarter of 2008.

Trumbull County had 27,965 manufacturing jobs in the first quarter of 2001. That dropped to 15,667 for a net loss of 12,298 jobs by the first quarter of 2008.

Mahoning County had 11,974 manufacturing jobs in the first quarter of 2001. That dropped to 10,107 for a net loss of 1,867 jobs by the first quarter of 2008.

Total employment figures show a loss of 20 percent in Trumbull County, 9.9 percent in Columbiana County and an 8.7 percent drop in Mahoning County since 2000.

Columbiana County had 34,053 total jobs in the first quarter of 2000 and 30,696 in the first quarter of 2008 while Trumbull County had 93,768 total jobs in 2000 and 74,976 in 2008 and Mahoning County had 108,780 total jobs that dropped to 99,317 in 2008.

Zeller said, "While the news is highly unfavorable in Mahoning and Columbiana counties, the 20 percent loss of employment and the staggering 44 percent loss in manufacturing employment in Trumbull County have been extremely harmful to the entire Mahoning Valley.

"Of course the 9 percent employment loss and the 22.6 percent manufacturing job loss in Columbiana County are both extremely troubling as well."

Zeller noted the damage continued in the most recent 2007-2008 figures.

"Ohio lost 32,876 jobs just during the past year. Of those lost jobs, 25,022 were high wage manufacturing jobs...the lost jobs caused a massive loss of paycheck earnings by Ohio workers. Between 2000 and 2008, Ohio lost an annual $9.87 billion in worker paychecks.

"Nearly $4 billion of that loss was in Cuyahoga County alone, but the rest of Ohio also lost enormous levels of paycheck earnings. Earnings were stable in Franklin County (Columbus) during the decade, but during the past year even Columbus suffered a 3 percent decline in paycheck earnings."

Zeller continued, saying, "The resulting situation is clearly an economic emergency in Ohio. As hundreds of thousands of workers lost their jobs, the level of human suffering across Ohio increased sharply and dangerously.

As he has noted with past reports, the data predates the emergence of a recession in the United States labor market later in 2008, "and they also predate the recent worldwide financial crisis and the plunge in worldwide stock markets." he said.

"Thus, the measures of economic suffering in Ohio in the new report are conservative, since the situation is currently worsening," Zeller said.

The damage was widely spread by region and by industry across Ohio and job losses have spread to finance and insurance, which after manufacturing constitutes the second most important sector of Ohio's economic base.

Zeller pointed out that during the past year, Ohio has lost 3.8 percent of its jobs in finance and insurance, an industry that normally grows both during economic recoveries and recessions. In low wage retail trade jobs, which on the average generate annual earnings of only $23,460 in the state, Ohio has lost 10.7 percent of its retail jobs since 2001.

Only two industries generated healthy employment and earnings growth in Ohio during the 2000s recession. Those industries were Health Care and Social Assistance and Management of Companies and Enterprises.

The management industry is small, although it produces very high average wages. In Health Services the 16.8 percent growth in Ohio employment since 2001 comes with an important caveat. This growth was financed by rapidly rising costs for medical insurance. Those rising costs hurt both firms and workers, and it is an important problem in the United States that has not yet been solved. So, the funding base for Ohio's most rapidly growing industry remains problematic going forward.

Ohio's largest concentration of Health Services is in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland). But, Cuyahoga County's 14.0 percent growth since 2000 in Health Services employment ranks only 54th among Ohio's 88 counties.

The need for an economic recovery in Ohio is increasingly urgent, but little sign of such a recovery is evident, Zeller said.

For more information, visit: www.nacs.net/~georgez/QEW0108.pdf. and www.nacs.net/~georgez/homepag2.htm.

Larry Shields can be reached at lshields@salemnews.net