As politicians were talking about the nation's latest unemployment figures -- down to 8.5 percent for December -- experts here in Ohio say the Mahoning Valley has been showing pretty steady growth for more than a year now.
"It's a very strong period of growth over a long period," said George Zellers, an economic analyst from Cleveland. "Not just one month's worth."
Zellers tracks weekly unemployment filings and said he's seen what he calls local "job growth" in 18 of the last 24 weeks, the exception coming in December when GM Lordstown unexpectedly shut down for a parts problem. And even though local figures jumped at one point, they fell back significantly the very next week when production resumed.
"The trend in manufacturing always explains the speed in which an economy is growing, and that's what we've seen in Youngstown-Warren," said Zellers.
While Zellers said the Valley's weekly figures are the best in all of Ohio, others claim the area has outpaced much of the rest of the country, with both Mahoning and Trumbull counties running several ticks ahead of the nation's jobless rate.
"A lot of it is related directly to Utica, Marcellus shale, but also I don't think we should overlook the fact that our call centers contnue to grow, too," said Tom Humphries, Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber president.
While Humphries predicts continued growth in 2012, Zellers argues manufacturing is only part of the equation.
"Another thing we need to have when you're in a long, deep recession like we've been in, the answer is always to increase government spending to prime the pump, to get the economy moving again," said Zellers.
