Akron’s employment figures still lag pre-pandemic levels, as do those of other mid-sized Ohio cities, Huntington Private Bank Chief Investment Officer John Augustine told a ballroom full of people Thursday at the bank’s 2024 economic outlook and market overview event.
But Augustine said he was optimistic about the state of the economy, locally and nationally, while also saying there were opportunities the city was missing.
“Remember, remember, next Monday afternoon when it does get dark, it will get light again,” Augustine said, referencing the upcoming eclipse as well as his positive take on the coming year.
The Akron region’s unemployment rate of 4.3% is high compared to the state’s 3.7%, something Augustine said is unusual for Summit and Portage counties. Total employment in Columbus and Cincinnati has recovered from the dropoff in the COVID-19 pandemic, but that hasn’t been the case in Akron, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo, Youngstown, Canton or Lima.
Augustine said Akron’s average hourly wages of $32.72 are near the national average of $34.57, while the cost of living is lower. That gives workers more flexibility with their spending.
“Our housing market is coming back nicely,” he said. “We’re doing more with less.”
But without a bigger labor force, there’s a smaller pool of both potential employees and customers.
“We need to get the kids to stay and get more people in our region,” he said. “We need to do a PR campaign.”
Campaign needed to get remote workers to move to Akron
And Augustine said Akron is failing to capitalize on remote-work trends that have helped propel interest in other Midwestern cities.
“We should be doing ads saying, ‘Move off the coast, move from Chicago, move here,’” he said. “We’re just not getting our fair share. … We need to get more of it.”
Ron Paydo, the Huntington Bank market president in Akron and Canton, said he was excited about Akron Mayor Shammas Malik’s efforts to bring business to the city.
“He’s really proactively reaching out to people,” Paydo said. “The pipeline of opportunities they’re creating is good.”
Paydo also said he was happy with Malik’s interest in improving Akron’s downtown and with the likelihood for collaboration with the private sector.
“We’re dealing with a position of strength,” he said. “We just need to capitalize on that.”
Local business owner still cautious about economy
Delmar Jones, who owns Jonesy’s Classic Cleaners in Medina, attended the event at the Sheraton Suites Akron/Cuyahoga Falls because he’s a member of Huntington’s advisory board and was interested in Augustine’s take on the economy.
Jones said while Augustine sees signs of optimism, he isn’t so sure. More of his cleaning clients, who usually pay with cash or check, are using credit cards, he said.
“I think they’re tight,” Jones said of his customers’ budgets.
Augustine said he doesn’t expect interest rates to come down as quickly as others have predicted. And he said after a year and a half of waiting for the other shoe to drop, he thinks people can largely stop fearing an economic slowdown.
When the Federal Reserve Bank was raising interest rates, “they’re trying to slow our businesses down,” he said. Now that the increases have stopped, any rate cuts will be good for business.
“Nothing is signaling recession to us,” he said. “The odds of going into a recession keep going down.”
Editor’s note: Ron Paydo is a member of the Signal Akron Local Advisory Board.
