OHIO ECONOMY:

Employment, Unemployment and Economic Development News

Two efforts to expand the region's economy -- one driven by technology, the other by regional planning for growth -- received big dollops of cash Wednesday from an economic development philanthropy.

The Fund for Our Economic Future committed up to $1.5 million to fund NorTech, a technology-development nonprofit group that has pared down and refocused its business-building duties.

And the Northeast Ohio Mayors & City Managers will receive as much as $600,000 from the fund to pursue regional planning of growth and sharing a portion of new taxes that result.

CLEVELAND -- Port leaders would like to draw a manufacturer to their site west of Cleveland Browns stadium.

The maritime committee of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority appeared supportive Tuesday of a pitch from President Adam Wasserman to market its largest warehouse to a manufacturer that would move products or receive raw materials across port docks.

Wasserman said the port has received inquiries from several companies about its 144,000-square-foot warehouse.

MAN Ferrostaal Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of a German engineering and construction service company, is talking to about three dozen local and U.S. companies about possible collaborations.

More than 100 calls have poured into the company's Beachwood office since MAN announced two weeks ago that it had moved its headquarters here with an eye toward manufacturing solar power systems, operating just-in-time automotive sub assembly plants, building marine power systems and expanding its defense contracting.

Tony Dejak/Associated PressGreater Cleveland's dependence on manufacturing hurts is economic ranking.

The metropolitan areas of Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown all ranked in the lower half of metros nationwide, on measures of growth in employment, per capita income, productivity and gross metropolitan product, a Cleveland State University study shows.

But hope glimmers.

Lake Erie's wind, geology and habitat can accommodate towering wind turbines, new studies from a local energy task force say.

Cuyahoga County officials this week rolled out the first three reports from their $1 million study of a grand vision -- erecting two to 10 wind turbines in the lake off Cleveland's shore.

The studies "show no deal breakers yet," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason, chairman of the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force.

Ohio's desperate times call for unlikely collaborations, even with the state up north.

Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, chief of Ohio's development efforts, said today he hopes to meet soon with his development counterpart in Michigan to talk about business opportunities on the border. Fisher suggested to about 70 folks at Cleveland State University -- gathered to hear about the state's new development strategy -- that Ohio and Michigan should consider joint business-attraction efforts and share taxes that result.

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The Cleveland area ranked just 316th out of 363 metropolitan areas in growth from 2005 to 2006, according to a Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The BEA, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, released its annual review of metropolitan economies Thursday. The reports are considered definitive snapshots of what drove metropolitan economies in the recent past.

The Cleveland port aims to be a leader in cutting-edge environmental practices with its latest hire.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority has hired veteran environmental planner Pamela Davis as its first environmental/sustainability manager, at a salary of $72,000.