Trutko for Cuyahoga Council
Government Performance, Safety & the Local Economy
Economic Analysis of
Cuyahoga County & Metro Cleveland
Cuyahoga County's Economic Growth Trailed Rest of Ohio Since 2001
Data Confirms Rapid Growth of Private Business Formation, But Employment Growth is Lacking.
Conclusion 1: Cuyahoga's Private Employment hasn't fully rebounded after Covid to 2019 level.
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Private employment in Cuyahoga County dropped by over 100,000 (15.1%) from 2001 to 2010 due to foreign competition and severe recession.
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Private employment gained back about half of the loss from 2010 to 2019, but the rate of increase trailed the rest of Ohio.
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Private employment for 2025 is estimated at about 606,000, about 30,000 below 2019.
Conclusion 2: Cuyahoga's Private Establishments have grown since 2019, but growth is less than other Ohio areas.
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The number of private establishments in the county dropped by over 3,000 (-8.2%) from 2001 to 2010 due to structural economic changes and a severe recession.
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The number of private establishments remained virtually the same from 2010 to 2019, while the rest of Ohio had a modest increase.
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The number of private establishments increased by 2,800 to nearly 38,000, the same as 2001. The rate of increase was about half of the rest of Ohio. below 2019.
Note: BLS's Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages is based on actual data rather than surveys. It is regarded as a very good source, but reports trail actual conditions by 6 months..
Cuyahoga County Economic Report (Nov 2025)
Cuyahoga County's Employment & Labor Force Have Grown Slowly But Consistently Since 2022
In November 2025, Cuyahoga County’s labor market showed growth, with employment reaching 611,000 (up 7,700 year-over-year) and the labor force rising to 632,000 (an increase of 8,500).
While both metrics have recovered from a brief dip in early 2025, they remain approximately 15,000 below pre-pandemic levels from November 2019. Unemployment sat at 21,100, down slightly from the previous year, maintaining a stable unemployment rate of 3.3%. This reflects the consistent, slow-growth trend seen since the 2022 recovery began.
For more information, read the PDF.
Can Metro Cleveland Capitalize on Surge in Private Businesses?
Cleveland Magazine/Community Leader (Feb 2025)
Since 2018, there’s been a significant, but largely unnoticed, growth in the number of private business established in Metro Cleveland.
Despite the Covid pandemic, private businesses grew from 53,800 businesses to 58,900 businesses in five years, an increase of 10%. Unfortunately, employment did not grow as well.
A better understanding of these entrepreneurial dynamics could arguably lead not only to the overall growth of new businesses, but to an increase in the segment that has the potential to grow and create jobs beyond the owner/proprietor model.
For more information, read the PDF.
Metro Cleveland Economic Report (Nov 2025)
Metro Cleveland's Employment & Labor Force Have Grown Slowly But Consistently on An Annual Basis Since 2022
Metro Cleveland's employment was 1,076,700 in Nov 2025, about 13,600 more than a year ago. The labor force was 1,114,000, a modest increase of 14,800 since last year. Employment & the labor force have bounced back from a slight downturn in early 2025 and are 5,000-10,000 below the same month in 2019 before the 2020 pandemic. Unemployment was 36,000, about 1,300 higher than a year earlier. The unemployment rate was 3.2%, the same as a year ago. Since the Covid recovery began in 2022, employment and the labor force have grown slowly but consistently on an annual basis, and unemployment has decreased.
For more information, read the PDF.
How Competitive is Metro Cleveland?
Cleveland Magazine/Community Leader (May 2024)
Many Metro Clevelanders wonder how competitive the area’s economy is in creating jobs and businesses compared to eleven other Midwestern metropolitan areas.
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The period from 2010 to 2023 offers a fair period to assess Metro Cleveland’s ability to create jobs and businesses. Overall, Metro Cleveland finished tenth in job creation and ninth in business formation. The two metropolitan areas performing worse than Cleveland were Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
For more information, read the PDF with additional tables
For more information, read the article
Finding Growth to Strengthen Metro Cleveland's Employment Future
Cleveland Magazine/Community Leader (Aug 2024)
As Metro Cleveland’s civic leadership seeks strategies to strengthen economic development, it is easy to fall into the trap of over-emphasizing favored industries and trumpeting positive news. By analyzing publicly available data, it's possible to take advantage of real economic strength and develop better strategies.
The article looks at thirty-three industry categories for the 2010-2023 period to determine the industries with strong, above average performance.​​
For more information, read the PDF with additional tables
For more information, read the article
Economic Overview of Metropolitan Cleveland & Akron
Presented to Educational Service Center NEO Business Advisory Council (Feb 3, 2023)
The presentation is an in-depth look at the impact of Covid on the seven-county Cleveland-Akron metropolitan area for a group of educational administrators. It analyzes long-term economic trends & provides a post-pandemic economic outlook.
For more information, read the article
