DAYTON, OHIO: Ohio’s economy grew slightly last year for the third consecutive year, according to the latest national statistics.
But the state’s real gross domestic product increase of 2.2 percent in 2012 still lagged behind the national average of 2.5 percent, according to the numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday by the Dayton Daily News.
Ohio’s growth last year was less than the 2.9 percent increase in 2011 but more than the 2.1 percent growth in 2010. Those increases came after a 5.7 percent decrease in 2009 amid fallout from the Great Recession.
The state’s growth has been behind the national average for 13 of the last 15 years.
“Ohio has been lagging the growth in the U.S. economy for a decade now, and that is the bad news,” said William Even, a business professor at Miami University in Southwest Ohio. “But even though we are a bit below the national average rate of growth, we are starting to grow at a rate that’s similar — slightly below average — which is an improvement.”
Since 1997, Ohio’s economy has grown faster than the national average only twice, in 2002 and 2011.
The real GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in the state, adjusted for inflation. The new and revised data shows that in 2012, the figure was $435 billion, up from $426 billion in 2011.
By that statistic, Ohio’s growth ranked 20th in the nation last year. North Dakota had the fastest growth (13.4 percent) while Connecticut had the slowest (-0.1 percent). North Dakota’s economy is booming because of oil and gas activities in the state.
The largest contributors to Ohio’s growing economy were manufacturing and company management. The largest decreases were in real estate, rental and leasing, and professional, scientific and technical services.
Ohio’s unemployment rate in 2012 fell to 7.2 percent, the lowest level since 2008. In April, it was 7.1 percent.