Molding A New Economy
While politicians battle for its votes, Ohio seeks to recast its economic future while staying true to its heartland history
COLUMBUS, OHIO--With spring in full swing, Ohio looks more green than purple. Purple, though, is the color pundits paint the state, a presidential battleground that could go either Bush-red or Kerry-blue come November 2. Yet the Buckeye State, the often-noted harbinger of national preference in picking presidents, is as much a battleground in the economic as the political sense. For here the forces of the "old economy" are in full contention with the promises of the new.
You can travel through 100 years of industrial history within the space of a few miles from the center of this city, itself at the epicenter of this year's battle for control of the White House. Start, for example, at Columbus Steel Castings, the renamed, once bankrupt Buckeye Steel, from which, as its president in 1908, Samuel Prescott Bush launched the family fortune that still helps sustain his great-grandson, the present Oval Office incumbent. Despite the computer-controlled machinery, to the untrained eye the maelstrom of fiery furnaces looks much as it might have when the plant was built a century ago. Then drive a few miles northwest to the skylighted corridors of the Business Technology Center, a former mattress factory that now houses 30 "incubators" --high-tech start-ups exploring the outer limits of technology. Both are vital parts of a state struggling to adjust to a globalized economy while preserving vestiges of the industries that were once the basis of its fortunes and its wellsprings of ingenuity and employment. "Clearly, if there's anything true about an economy, it's that it's constantly in transition," says Bruce Johnson, Ohio's state director of development. "I think Ohio is a microcosm of what's going on nationally. We're grounded in manufacturing and agriculture, but we're fast transitioning into technology and services."
As the nation's third-largest manufacturing state, Ohio has suffered more than its share of regrowing pains. Between March 2001 and March 2004, the state lost 272,300 jobs, 238,100 in manufacturing. The latest blow: Last month the Timken Co., a global manufacturer of bearings and alloy steels, said it will shutter three plants in Canton that now employ some 1,300 workers.
Still, there are signs that the state is catching the new wave of growth churned up by the rejuvenescent national economy. The Timken downer was followed by a fast upper: Whirlpool confirmed plans to invest as much as $145 million in its Ohio facilities, saving 2,000 local jobs. New data also showed Ohio payrolls up by 34,800 jobs since last December. Even in the southeastern, Appalachian region of the state, a uranium enrichment plant, a biotech startup, and a nascent tourist industry aim to provide a fresh start for that chronically depressed area (story, Page 40).
State officials aren't the only ones talking up Ohio's outlook. "The last 90 days have been much better than the previous 900," says Francis Price, CEO of Q3 Stamped Metal on Columbus's south side. Most of the metal Q3 stamps goes into heavy trucks, and when durable goods orders rise, "that's what moves them," Price says.
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