The economy of Greater Cleveland is diverse, but is based on healthcare, banking, finance, education, insurance, manufacturing, sports, and tech. The metropolitan area based in Cleveland is the 33rd largest in the country, and is home to over 2 million people.
Cleveland was founded in 1796 by Moses Cleaveland and his followers. In the early 19th Century, farmers came to Cleveland to sell their goods. The building of the Erie Canal helped grow the region as well as its economy. In the 1860s, the Standard Oil Company was founded by John D. Rockefeller in the city of Cleveland. In the early 20th century, about a quarter of the region's jobs were in steel mills. The Great Depression hurt the area's economy and caused up to 35% unemployment rate. The City of Cleveland went into default in 1978 and was $30 million in debt. The area's economy improved during the 1990s. However, The Great Recession hindered the region as the City of Cleveland's unemployment rate hit 12%. Since then, the state of the metro area's economy has improved. [1] The GDP of the region is at about $138 billion. [2]
As of 2014, these are the largest employers in the Cleveland Metro Area. [3]
| # | Employer | # of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cleveland Clinic | 32,251 |
| 2 | University Hospitals | 14,518 |
| 3 | United States Federal Government | 11,254 |
| 4 | Progressive Insurance | 8,379 |
| 5 | Cuyahoga County | 7,776 |
| 6 | Cleveland Metropolitan School District | 6,953 |
| 7 | City of Cleveland | 6,757 |
| 8 | MetroHealth | 5,823 |
| 9 | Key Corp | 4,812 |
| 10 | Group Management Services | 4,795 |
| 11 | Case Western Reserve University | 4,512 |
| 12 | Swagelok | 4,182 |
| 13 | Giant Eagle | 3,530 |
| 14 | Heinen's Fine Foods | 3,500 |
| 15 | Sherwin-Williams | 3,430 |
| 16 | U.S. Postal Service | 2,801 |
| 17 | Lincoln Electric | 2,800 |
| 18 | Nestle | 2,298 |
| 19 | State of Ohio | 2,288 |
| 20 | Cuyahoga Community College | 2,249 |
The following is a list of companies on the Fortune 500 list that have corporate headquarters in Greater Cleveland as of 2019 [4]
KeyBank is headquartered in Cleveland's tallest building, the Key Tower. Key employs nearly 5,000 people in Greater Cleveland. [5] There are many banks with a presence in the Cleveland Metro Area, including Fifth-Third Bank, U.S. Bank, Bank of America, PNC, Dollar Bank, Chase, and Huntington. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland was built in 1923, a time when Cleveland's population was nearly twice the size today. [6] Third Federal S&L is also a major bank in Cleveland.
Greater Cleveland is home to several higher education institutions. These include Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Cuyahoga Community College, Oberlin College, Baldwin Wallace University, Notre Dame College, and John Carroll University. These places employ approximately 9,600 people. There are an estimated 142 High Schools in the Greater Cleveland area. The Cleveland School District is the largest school district in the region, and employs almost 7,000 staff. There are around 21,000 teachers in the Metro Area, teaching approximately 330,000 students. [7]
The area's largest insurance company is Progressive Insurance, an international car insurance corporation, which is based in the suburb of Mayfield. 8,379 people are employed by Progressive in the region. [3] However, Progressive's rivals, including State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide, and Geico are also prominent in Greater Cleveland.
Northeast Ohio's economy was dominated by manufacturing up until the mid 20th century. [8] Between 1990 and 2012, the area experienced a 41 percent decline in manufacturing jobs. [9] More recently manufacturing, especially of steel, has been on a slight upswing. A study from Cleveland State has shown a bounce back after the Great Recession for the manufacturing industry. Between 2010 and 2012, the area saw a net growth in manufacturing jobs, the first time in a decade. [10]
Greater Cleveland's economy has shifted to an economy of medicine and health. The two largest employers in Cuyahoga County are Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, respectively. Both are major factors in the region's economy. University Hospitals is estimated to have a $7.7 billion impact on Ohio's economy. [11] Cleveland Clinic's impact on the statewide economy is $17.8 billion. [12] Between 1990 and 2012, 107,000 healthcare related jobs were created in the region, a 55% increase. [9] Healthcare related jobs have surpassed the number of manufacturing related jobs in the area. Greater Cleveland health care industry is a major sector of the local economy.
Sports are another factor of the local economy in Northeast Ohio. All three of the Big 4 teams located in Cleveland generate a major economic impact. The Cleveland Browns are considered to have a less of a positive economic impact on the city, both due to the fact that they only play 8 games in the stadium a year, far less than the Cavs and Guardians, and because of their poor playing. [13] The Cleveland Guardians' strong performance in recent years has helped the local economy. Postseason home games were estimated to have a $3 million economic impact, and home World Series games had an estimated $10 million economic impact. [14] LeBron James, a former Cleveland Cavaliers superstar, was also a factor of Cleveland's economy, more specifically near the FieldHouse. [15] [16] The Cavaliers’ successes in the mid 2010s have generated positive results for the area's economy.
The technology industry is prominent in Greater Cleveland, specifically health related technology. According to Forbes, Cleveland could be the next tech hub. 180 tech companies have started in the local area. [17] Cleveland's economy is often said to be transitioning from a manufacturing based economy to a health-tech based economy. [18]
Cleveland, officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in Northeast Ohio along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the U.S. maritime border with Canada and lies approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Pennsylvania. Cleveland ranks as the largest city on Lake Erie, the second-most populous city in Ohio, and the 54th-most populous city in the U.S. with a 2020 population of 372,624. The city anchors the Cleveland metropolitan area, the 33rd-largest in the U.S. at 2.18 million residents, as well as the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton combined statistical area, the most populous in Ohio and the 17th-largest in the country with a population of 3.63 million in 2020.
The Great Lakes region of Northern America is a binational Canadian–American region centered around the Great Lakes that includes the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario. Canada's Quebec province is at times included as part of the region because the St. Lawrence River watershed is part of the continuous hydrologic system. The region forms a distinctive historical, economic, and cultural identity. A portion of the region also encompasses the Great Lakes megalopolis.
The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 census results, the six-county Cleveland, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of Cuyahoga County, Ashtabula County, Geauga County, Lake County, Lorain County, and Medina County, and has a population of 2,185,825, making it the 33rd-most populous metropolitan area in the United States and the third largest metropolitan area in Ohio. The metro area is also part of the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area with a population of over 3.7 million people, the most populous statistical area in Ohio and the 17th most populous in the United States.
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The Rust Belt is a region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting in the 1950s. The U.S. manufacturing sector as a percentage of the U.S. GDP peaked in 1953 and has been in decline since, impacting certain regions and cities primarily in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the U.S., including Allentown, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Jersey City, Newark, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Toledo, Trenton, Youngstown, and other areas of New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Upstate New York.
The Flats is a mixed-use industrial, recreational, entertainment, and residential area of the Cuyahoga Valley neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. The name reflects its low-lying topography on the banks of the Cuyahoga River.
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The Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area is a metropolitan area in Central Ohio surrounding the state capital of Columbus. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, it includes the counties of Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Hocking, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Perry, Pickaway, and Union. At the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 2,138,926, making it 32nd-most populous in the United States and the second largest in Ohio, behind the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The metro area, also known as Central Ohio or Greater Columbus, is one of the largest and fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the Midwestern United States.
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The Ohio bioscience sector strength was ranked #4 among USA states in 2008 by Business Facilities magazine.
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The economy of Indianapolis is centered on the City of Indianapolis and Marion County within the context of the larger Indianapolis metropolitan area. The Indianapolis–Carmel–Anderson, IN MSA, had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $134 billion in 2015. The top five industries were: finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing ($30.7B), manufacturing ($30.1B), professional and business services ($14.3B), educational services, health care, and social assistance ($10.8B), and wholesale trade ($8.1B). Government, if it had been a private industry, would have ranked fifth, generating $10.2 billion.
