Cleveland

Economy

Historically, Cleveland was a major industrial and manufacturing center. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the local economy suffered, leaving Cleveland and many other midwestern cities, in an economic recession. During the 1980s, Cleveland lost 11.9 percent of its population when workers moved to take new jobs in the south and west. (During this period industrialized cities of the Midwest and Northeast were labeled the Rust Belt, and their counterparts in the South and Southwest, the Sun Belt.) Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing into the 1990s, however, Cleveland made the transition from an industrial economy to a services-based economy. In 1995, in fact, 28.8 percent of the workforce in the Cleveland metropolitan area was engaged in services, compared to 20.6 percent in manufacturing. Wholesale and retail trade employed 23.6 percent that year and 12.8 percent worked for local, state, and federal government.

In 1995, Cleveland was home to 95 companies with revenues exceeding $100 million. Among the largest employers in the area (1994) were the U.S. government (18,500); Ford Motor Company (10,896 employees); Catholic Diocese of Cleveland (10,000); Cleveland Clinic Foundation (9,900); Cleveland Board of Education (9,673); Cuyahoga County Government (9,232); MetroHealth System (8,328); City of Cleveland (8,226); University Hospitals (7,640); State of Ohio (7,630); LTV Steel Company (7,500); Riser Foods (6,500); First National Supermarkets (6,451); Centerior Energy (6,200); Goodyear Tire and Rubber (5,937); and Ameritech (5,309).