The Columbus area has been hit by the recession.  But the damage is certainly not what it could have been, given the fact that Columbus is well insulated against a recession by its diverse and healthy economic makeup.  Columbus’s economy relies heavily on manufacturing and production sectors.  These are sectors in which job cuts have been the heaviest all over the US.  But other sectors like financial, education, tech, research, government, and healthcare have helped keep the city afloat and the unemployment rates low.

Columbus has been an economic melting pot for a couple of decades.  The pace of diversification was really picked up in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s as more and more companies began to realize that Columbus was a cheap, well located area for their headquarters.  Companies that are based in this city include Banc One and Nationwide Insurance.  There are also numerous colleges and universities that help to diversify the job market and create a need for high-tech and education-related jobs.

Columbus is home to about 40% of Ohio’s jobs.  This is largely balanced out by the fact that there are a relatively small number of government jobs both at the state and federal level in the city.  The city’s manufacturing plants took a hit but there has been much recent development of more advanced technology manufacturing.  These plants, which manufacture high tech goods like computer components and bits and pieces associated with new green technology innovations have sprung up and are helping to pad the job loss numbers in the more traditional manufacturing and production plants.  The sector of healthcare is also growing very rapidly in Columbus, and those involved in this field will likely have quite a variety of jobs to choose from in and around Columbus as the US healthcare sector becomes more and more important in the next couple of decades, reflecting the aging of the baby boomers.

Columbus was one of the US’s fastest growing cities in the early 2000’s.  The trend has slipped a little since there has been such a backlash on the manufacturing and production jobs, but the city’s employment landscape seems to be adjusting well.  While Columbus isn’t as big of an economic hotspot as other cities across the US that have a very diversified economy, it is still the fastest growing in Ohio and boasts some of the lowest unemployment rates in the state as well.  The city has been faring better than the national average, but only slightly.  Columbus had an unemployment rate of roughly 9% in September 2009.  This rate has been steady for the past year or so and hasn’t seen a real, substantial up-tick since late 2007.

Certainly Columbus is faring better than Cleveland, and all of the more rural, less high tech manufacturing and blue-collar employment supporting areas in Ohio.  If you’ve got to move to Ohio, than Columbus is certainly the place to go for the best opportunities at employment in many different sectors.  I would expect Columbus to do quite well once the economic recession begins to wane and more jobs are created.  The city’s economic and job diversity has helped it through rough times.