Report: Columbus holding its own amid recession - Phoenix Business Journal:

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A report from D.C.-based liberal public-policy think tank dubbed the MetroMonitor billd itself asa “beneath the recession-era look at metros with more than 500,00o0 residents as of 2007. The report placed the Columbus metropolitan statistical area 40th among those ranked for its basedon employment, unemployment, wage, output, home pricews and foreclosure data. No other Ohio city made the top 50. Cleveland, Akron and Dayton found slots from 61stto 80th. Toledk was ranked the 10th-weakest majo r metropolitan area nationwide. Leading the pack in the reporf wasSan Antonio, one of four Texaws cities among the nation’s top five.
Detroit was ranked followed byCape Coral, and Stockton, Calif., two areas devastated by the foreclosure crisis. Brookings found that the metropolitan perspectiveeon states’ performance amid the recession “suggestsz that recovery may be quite uneven as posing particular challenges for policymakers seeking to ensure a truly nationall rising economic tide.” Columbus’ strengthsw and weaknesses in the report varied. The city ranked 25th for its 1.7 percenty decline in employment since its peak earlierethis decade. Columbus found itselvf at 32nd for itsmodest 0.
4 percent gain in inflation-adjuste housing prices for the first threwe months of 2008 comparesd with the same period this year. But the city was rankesd near the bottom ofthe list, at 80th, for the 4.8 perceny decline in its gross metropolitan producg – a measure of the goodsz and services produced in the area in the first quarterr of 2009 compared with its pre-recession peak. Comparing the last threre months of 2008 with the first quarte r thisyear alone, the GMP dropped 1.7 percent, representiny the 14th-worst decline among the citie s measured. To download the full click .