business development

“The overall news is pretty good.” That was the message that Dr. Bill LaFayette preached at the Creekside Conference and Event Center as the 18th Annual Groundhog Day Economic Forecast Breakfast took place on January 30 in Gahanna.

LaFayette, who is the founder and CEO of Regionomics, an economic consulting firm based out of Columbus, gave the Keynote Presentation to an audience of approximately 200 attendees.

LaFayette gave a presentation, which was very positive and encouraging for the most part on job growth and economic development.

“I’ve been giving these speeches for 15 years now,” LaFayette said. “They’re fun now. For the first time, I don’t have to tell you to ‘brace for impact’. Things are good, both locally, and nationally.”

According to LaFayette’s 2015 Regionomics Columbus Forecast, the unemployment rate in the Columbus Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which covers ten counties, is four percent even, compared to that of Ohio (4.8 percent) or the United States as a whole (5.4 percent). “Hiring has reached a pre-recession peak,” LaFayette added. In contrast, LaFayette added that the unemployment rate numbers only count the people who are actually actively looking for work, as the labor force itself continues to decline.

“The labor force started to fall in the Recession, and has continued falling ever since. The share of people in the labor force is the lowest since the late 1970s,” LaFayette said. “The four percent unemployment rate is real.”

Despite the labor force drop, employment is projected to surpass one million in 2015. 80,600 jobs were added to the Central Ohio region from January 2010 to June 2014, according to the numbers LaFayette presented, with a 9.2 percent increase in jobs.

In regards to the economy for Gahanna, LaFayette said, “The economy in the 43230 zip code (which serves most of Gahanna) is widely diversified, more diversified than in many zip codes in Central Ohio”.