PERRYSBURG, Ohio — Leaders from the 31 counties that make up northwest Ohio gathered at the event center of Perrysburg's Hilton Garden Inn Monday to get a better look at how the region has been doing for the last five years.
At face value, the data doesn't look promising.
Northwest Ohio is not doing as strong as it was in 2018, which is no surprise, because the COVID-19 pandemic "happened in the middle," Tim Mayle, the director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at Bowling Green State University, said.
Data presented at the conference revealed that 27 of the 31 counties that make up northwest Ohio have lost jobs in the last five years, with Lucas County alone hemorrhaging over 14,000.
But Mayle said these losses are mainly the economic scars of COVID, and comparing pre-pandemic economic data doesn't paint a true picture of the current reality.
Instead, he said regions need be analyzed in how they're recovering. Mayle said northwest Ohio in particular is signaling strong progress and has made significant gains in the manufacturing industry.
"We're seeing a lot of companies now really own their manufacturing and really bring it back here," he said.
Mayle said groups like the automotive industry and companies like Abbott are driving that momentum, creating gains that have leaders like Sandy Spang, Toledo's vice president of economic development, confident the region is on the right path.
"[We're seeing] significant job growth and we're seeing construction at a higher level than we have in many years, great indicators for the health of our region," Spang said.
While business is returning to the region after those massive pandemic-related losses, and small business is finally at pre-pandemic highs, not all of the news out of the conference is rosy.
As recently as December 2022, people are still leaving northwest Ohio in large numbers, with Lucas County alone having lost about 10,000 residents from 2010 to 2020.
Outlying counties have lost thousands more.
Mayle said groups across the region, such as Toledo's residential development by the river, are actively working to stop the bleeding.
Groups like BGSU's Reimagining Rural Regions program, also known as R3, are putting direct effort into the recovery of smaller counties by bringing paid interns to help struggling counties develop long-term projects in the community.
Maddi Menich, R3's program director, said the initiative teaches students that they can make a difference in their hometowns.
"We see that a lot of times young folks go to college and go to those bigger cities and might not come back to those rural communities, so we're looking for ways to entice them back and make it feel like home again," Menich said.
Mayle said with these kinds of positive updates and a continuing focus on growth, he and other leaders are able to walk out of the event excited about what the future of northwest Ohio might hold.
"We are all one region, and we are all working together, and that was highlighted today," Mayle said.